Family Life
by Scathac
Summary: John Watson meets Sherlock Homes and his adopted Jim sees an opportunity for .. Please review and post your comments, any criticism welcome, will try and post regularly :) Parentlock M for violence and possible drug abuse
1. Chapter 1

**John Watson walked through the halls of St Barts; he hadn't been there since he had left to Afghanistan. Mike Stamford walked behind him, taking and John on autopilot made noises of agreement. He was here to come and talk to a man that Mike knew about sharing a flat, Mike had warned him that he was strange but that didn't bother him he had dealt with worse than a weird and come out the other side. Unscathed but alive, and that was most important. **

**They approached the entrance to a lab, outside a girl was sitting on a table softly singing to herself while she plaited a piece of string. "**_**At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer, and the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devils in the chair." **_**She had a nice voice he thought, not too sweet but haunting. He recognised the tune from a concert he had attended while in Uni, 'The sick bed of Cuchulainn' by the Pogues. The girl looked up as she heard their footsteps and smiled. "Hi Mike" she said, "Who's this?" Mike introduced them "Is he asking about the flat?" John looked at Mike annoyed, "I thought you said you hadn't mentioned about the flat?" The girl stood up and opened the door to the lab "Oh he didn't say anything, please don't be annoyed. It's just a thing, I'm sorry, I've been very rude. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Squish O'Connor. And it's my guardian you've come to see."**

**John walked in to the lab leaning heavily on his stick. A tall man was looking into a microscope, Mike cleared his throat noisily, and nervously John noticed. When the man still didn't register any reaction, the girl walked up to him and poked him in the ribs. "Yes" he said irritably "I can see there here, but it so obvious why, I don't see why I have to bother to ask!" The girl stood equally tall and said, "Because social etiquette says to and I say too and also I like this one, so grow up!" **

**This one, John thought what happened to the others? He roused himself from his inner monologue as he could feel the full force of the man's attention on him. He cocked his head to onside, "Afghanistan or Iraq?" "What?" said John bewildered. Turning to Mike "You told him?" he asked. "Not a word" said Mike enjoying the moment, "I told you". Turning back to the man John said puzzled, "How did you know then", not demanding or angry, just curious. "Come now it's perfectly obvious so shall we get to the real reason you're here?" "Sherlock" Squish said with a warning tone her voice, "be nice" "I AM!" He said. "No you're showing off and if you don't stop I'm hiding your violin" They stood staring at each other for several minutes. Finally Sherlock said "Oven" Saoirse smiled and said "No, but good try, obviously the bread bin." Sherlock smacked himself in the forehead "Obvious, stupid." He said, "Now", turning back to John, "How do you feel about the violin?" John looked bewildered "What?" Sherlock sighed "The violin how do you feel about it. I play when I'm thinking, sometimes I don't speak for days" Squish looked up from the microscope which she had wandered over too and was now peering intently, "I can confirm that" she called "or feed his only child. Sherlock, green ladder? "Um what?" John said again, "Yes I'm thinking the brother. Well potential flatmates need to know the worst about each other" he said, with a horrible grimace on his face. "Then why haven't you told him about the eyeballs in the fridge?" Squish said, as she passed him a scarf that was lying on a bench. "Thought you told me to be nice?" She just stuck her tongue out. "Um sorry" said John "who said anything about flatmates?" "Oh you did" said Saoirse now zipping up a jumper. "And sorry it's been so brief, but we have a client that needs some urgent attention, so why don't you come to look at the flat tomorrow, around 7?" John just stood there looking bewildered, "I know nothing about you and now you want to be flatmates? I don't even know your name!" Sherlock looked around "Squish where's my riding crop?" "Mortuary" she said. "Of course" Sherlock said "I know that you are an Army doctor who had been invalided home. I know you have a brother who's worried about you but who you won't go to for help because you don't approve of him- possibly because he is an alcoholic more likely because he has recently walked out on his wife. And I know that your therapist thinks your limp is psychosomatic quite correctly" He smiled like a child who had perfected a magic trick. **

"**And I think that that is enough to be going on with" said Squish, pushing him out the door, "go and fetch your riding crop" She waited until he had gone, "Please come tomorrow Dr Watson, you've taken this remarkably well and I realise we aren't ideal but we really do need a flatmate" She turned and at the door turned and smiled "Thanks for not telling him it's a sister, his name is Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221b Baker Street" and with that she had gone. John completely bewildered turned to Mike and he said "Yeah their always like that"**


	2. Chapter 2

**John Watson limped out of the taxi and went up to the door of the house. As he raised his hand to knock, another taxi pulled up. Squish got out one side and Sherlock the other. "Ah, Mr Holmes" said John **

"**Sherlock, please" **

**replied the taller man, as he walked towards the door. Squish smiled at him as she climbed up steps. John coughed nervously,**

"**So." he said "Central London, must be expensive?" **

**Sherlock turned from the door and smiled ghoulishly **

"**Oh, Mrs Hudson, the landlady, she's giving us a special deal. Owes us a favour. A few years back, her husband got himself sentenced to death in Florida. I was able to help out." John stood stockstill for a moment,**

"**Sorry, you stopped her husband being **

**Again John stood still. The girl seemed to realise that John was feeling overwhelmed, she smiled again, but this time it seemed to light her up. **

"**Don't worry he deserved it and Mrs Hudson much better without him"**

**The door opened and an elderly woman wearing bright clothing was revealed. Sherlock quickly stepped into her embrace and the quickly out of it again. Squish hugged her for much longer and pecked her on the cheek before turning to present John to her. **

"**Mrs Hudson, this is Dr John Watson. He's come about sharing the flat." **

"**Oh hello, I've been wondering about whether we would find anyone, it's this way" She said.**

**Sherlock had already bounded up a flight of stairs, and was now unlocking a door. Squish walked slowly up the stairs with John, walking slow enough that he could hobble along next to her, but discreetly. As john reached the first floor she held the door for him and he briefly wondered where she got her manners from, if she had been solely brought up by Sherlock whose manners seem to be limited. She noticed him staring at her and said **

"**He can be quite charming when he wants to be but I've had help with preparing myself for the world." **

**John nodded, and stepped inside the flat. **

**The living room was full of folders and boxes that seemed to have vomited their contents onto every available surface. There were a few armchairs dotted about positioned in front of a television with a sofa opposite a large window. Furniture seemed to be thrown about at random and not ordered in anyway. There were books at random and what appeared to be a skull on the mantelpiece. John looked around again**

"**Well, this could be very nice. Very nice indeed." Sherlock smiled. **

"**I thought so, so I went and moved in". At the same moment that John said **

"**Once we get this rubbish is moved!" **

**He could feel himself blushing; luckily Mrs Hudson then said **

"**What do you think, then, Doctor Watson? There's another bedroom upstairs, if you need it" **

"**Mrs H, of course John will need it" said Squish "Now um… why don't you go downstairs and catch the last 15 minutes of that makeover show you like"**

"**That's a wonderful idea. Just let me know about the flat, won't you dear just so I know" With that she descended the stairs in a cloud of perfume. At this point Sherlock turned shouted over his shoulder, "Don't touch the fingernails" and disappeared upstairs. **

**The girl turned to John "Mrs Hudson's becoming a little obsessed with that ghastly Connie Prince woman; I don't understand the appeal myself. Sorry can I offer you a cuppa?" **

**John gave a little smile, "Yes please, I take it…" Squish held up a hand,**

"**Milk and one sugar, I know. Take a seat, move anything, we barely know where everything is anything is anyway." **

**John moved a few folders onto a coffee table in the process of which a few sheets of paper fell onto to the floor. "A study of Tobacco Ash?" he read aloud, on the sheets were several diagrams showing the scatter pattern of various tobaccos.**

"**Yep" said Squish carrying over two mugs of tea, "It's Sherlock's pet project, though he really doesn't understand why no one seems interested in it" she smiled as she passed over the hot mug. John took a sip. Damn that was a good cup of tea. He looked around the room, his gaze alighting on the skull. Squish caught his gaze and looked at the skull too.**

"**He's called Hamish and he's surprisingly good company" **

"**He's. I mean, it's, a skull" **

"**It's talk to the skull or sit in silence sometimes. When Sherlock's thinking or sulking it can be silent in here, talking to the skull's preferable." John stared at her in disbelief. **

"**This is all normal for you isn't it? Talking to skulls, hanging out in a morgue, that's normal" **

**Squish laughed at his disbelief. **

"**Of course this is normality for me, I was adopted by Sherlock when I was two days old, I don't know any other kind of normality."**

**John shook his head in exasperation. **

"**But surely you go to school? Have friends come over? Anything like that?" **

"**Not really. I was home-schooled to a certain extent and I have a tutor on a Wednesday morning, but that's Sherlock's brother not Sherlock's doing. He would be quite happy just to leave me too it I think. Anyway, imagine someone normal in this chaos. But I do have friends. And a job, well two jobs if you count what I and Sherlock do"**

**John raised his eyebrows. **

"**What is it that you do exactly? I don't understand what you do in a mortuary that isn't medical" **

**Squish raised her mug and took a long draught of tea. She swallowed and looked at John through her eyelashes.**

"**Sherlock is the world's first consulting detective. That means that the police come and ask for his opinion on crime scenes, people ask him to solve their problems things like that."**

"**That's not possible; the police don't consult normal people."**

**Squish smiled again, but more cynically this time.**

"**We aren't normal" she said. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Two shots rang out from the living room. Squish's eyes snapped open; she knew that gun. she reached over and picked up her phone from the charger. 6:30. She fell back on the pillow, they'd only got back to Baker Street at 1 and she was exhausted. Rolling out of bed and she reached for her dressing gown. **

**Sherlock was lying on the sofa facing the wall; a revolver was on the coffee table. Squish regarded the scene and was now thoroughly pissed off. **

"**Sherlock? Do you know the time?"**

"**Hmm? Yes its 6:33, and there is nothing happening. It's sickening that just because it's what some people might call early that the criminal classes don't do anything."**

"**Yes its 6:30" she repeated, ignoring the rest of his rant, "And I didn't get to bed until gone 1 because YOU decided that Moriarty was operating out of an opium den in China Town."**

"**Yes but…"**

"**a fact that you were decidedly WRONG about, and now you are firing a gun against a wall waking me and the rest of the house."**

"**I don't see anyone else" said Sherlock, "and to say I was wrong about the opium den is incorrect. There was an opium den and Moriarty had been there. I'm so close to him, I can taste it." He got a dreamy look in his eyes, then picked up the gun and it three times in quick succession. **

"**You're impossible" groaned Squish. She walked into the kitchen and started to make a cup of tea. Sherlock continued to fire against the wall. After five minutes, John stumbled into the room.**

"**What's going on?" he shouted **

"**Bored, bored, bored" Sherlock shouted back, not stopping the volley against the wall.**

"**Squish, why didn't you do something?" John said exasperatedly as the gun clicked forlornly, finally empty. **

**She slammed down her mug, **

"**John" she said acidly, "I am a fifteen year old girl suffering from sleep deprivation, and he is a self-proclaimed sociopath with a gun. From a purely medical perspective do you honestly think that I should try and wrestle anything off him?" **

**And with that she went into her bedroom making sure to slam the door hard behind her. **

**John stared after her bewilderedly. **

"**Sherlock"**

"**Mmm?" **

"**Is everything all right with Squish? She seems…edgy"**

"**Oh she's just annoyed that I woke her up with the gun" he said, his long fingers reloading it. John noticed. **

"**Oh no, no way" he said, plucking it from his fingers, "I think you've caused enough damage with that thing already"**

**With that he went and knocked on Squish's door. **

"**Come in then" he heard her shout. Angrily he thought to himself.**

**He opened the door. Squish was at her laptop, her dressing gown thrown across the back of her chair. Her room was large enough to fit in a wardrobe, a single bed, a desk with her makeup and a mirror. **

"**So. Are you ok" John offered, "You seem… um upset?"**

**She spun around in the chair.**

"**Of course I'M FINE John. I mean it isn't like I have an adopted father who drags me out in the middle of the night, or wakes me up with a gun, or forgets to feed me or get the shopping or any of the things he does!"**

**She let out a sigh, and visibly tried to calm herself down. "I'm sorry. It's just that sometimes I get a little bit mad and you happened to ne be in the firing line." She tried a smile, and flopped down on the bed, "I just wish that we could be normal sometimes.**

**John sighed and sat down next to her. "I know he can be a pain sometimes, but I honestly believe that he cares about you in away us mere mortals can only imagine."**

**A snort at that. "Besides imagine how much worse he would be without you?" He gave an exaggerated shudder. **

**Squish laughed out loud, and then smiled. She leaned her head against his shoulder, "You're a good friend John Watson. Now go and get ready for your date."**

"**How did you know I have a date today" he asked, resigned to the inevitability of what was to come.**

"**It's written all over you. You never wake up this early regardless of what noises are made. Meaning you were awake and you're always nervous before a date. And you're dressed with aftershave."**

"**Very good, and how did…"**

"**Not finished. You're wearing your rogering socks" she smiled mischievously. **

"**I do not have my rogering socks on, I don't own rogering socks"**

"**Yes you do, it's your black ones with the red spots on. And you are wearing them now"**

"**You can be quiet" he said, "And with Mary, it's not rogering it's more... poetic then that."**

**Squish had a strange look on her face. "Socks?" she whispered. "Socks"**

**She ran out of the room and skidded to halt in front of Sherlock who was still in the same position staring at the ceiling. **

"**You're wearing bed socks. You only ever wear bed socks when you feel exposed. And you've been answering your own texts. What's wrong?"**

"**You and John complain if I use your phone and now you complain if I use mine. How can I be accused of being a sociopath if you make up rules that I don't know?"**

"**You call yourself a sociopath, everyone else just follows suit. Now give me your phone."**

"**No."**

"**I said give me the bloody phone." She said reaching into the pocket of his dressing gown. She pulled it out and danced out of his reach. She quickly bypassed his security code (90210, the only television show he actually watched) and scrolled to his texts. **

**A few from Molly, answered she noticed surprisingly.**

**And 15 in the past hour from one person.**

**When are you going to admit your experiment was a failure?**

**J.M**

**What do you mean experiment?'**

**S.H**

**Your little pet child. You just wanted to see what it was like and now you keep her because it amuses you to see her trying to be you.**

**J.M**

**All aloof and cold.**

**J.M**

**Except really she's dying to get one word of praise out of you**

**J.M**

**And watching you throw her a kind word, it makes you wonder why people say I'm cruel**

**J.M**

**How do you think she'd look with one of my pretty jackets?**

**J.M**

**Dressed up like a Christmas Tree. **

**J.M **

**Now, Now Sherlock. Play the game. Or maybe I'll start to play with your Doctor as well.**

**J.M**

**Squish couldn't read anymore. She threw the phone at Sherlock and ran past John and slammed her bedroom door. John caught sight of her face as she ran past him.**

"**Now what have you done?" he asked wearily. **

**Sherlock gestured at the phone which was lying on the brink of the table. He caught it as it started to slide over the edge. He started looking at the texts and his face changed. First to fear, then to hatred. **

"**Sherlock, you need to go and talk to her"**

"**Why?" the taller man asked, "she's hardly going to be talkative now, why did she run out anyway, it's not like I answered them."**

"**That's exactly why she's upset; you didn't tell him to fuck off did you? She needs reassurance Sherlock. She's afraid that he's right. Jesus and I was just telling her how much you cared about her."**

**Sherlock was looking at him oddly. **

"**Just fix it ok. By the time I get back."**


	4. Chapter 4

**John left and Sherlock heard the front door bang as he left. **

"**Mary's" he thought, "he's gone to Mary's, most likely to moan and gripe and then try and get off with her. How dull, boring, how quiet it must be not to be me"**

**He sighed and stretched his long legs out, he regarded the door in front of him with interest. He still didn't understand why Squish was upset. He hadn't agreed with Moriarty because what he said was untrue, and to reply in such a way was a waste of time. Besides if he replied, he was encouraging him and surely that was just as bad?**

**He reached out for the box that he kept underneath the sofa and took out three nicotine patches. He leaned back as he felt the nicotine course through him, yep definitely a three patch problem. No, he still didn't understand. If all he had to do was tell Jim that he was wrong then why did it matter, the opposite was so obvious.**

**There was only one thing that he could do. Sighing he got to his feet and walked to the door. He opened it and stepped into the room. Squish was lying on her bed, above the covers clutching two toys to her chest. As she heard him come in she turned around.**

"**Sherlock. Fuck off" she said, in a flat monotone.**

"**You're upset" he stated.**

"**No shit Sherlock, great deduction" she said sarcastically, turning over and facing towards the window that opened into the alley behind the house. **

"**You're upset" he continued "because you think that I agree with Moriarty. That you were just an experiment to me. And that I only keep you around because it amuses me to see you try." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.**

"**Congratulations, ten out of ten" Squish sat up and gave him a round of applause, "is this part where I fawn over you? Tell you how amazing and clever you are? Amazing? Brilliant? Just like John? Because I'm not. Not this time" **

**He stared at her impassively. Her face hardened.**

"**God, I can't win with you can I? I could have been adopted by anyone, a normal family. I could have friends, go to school be normal. Instead I got you."**

**Now that hurt, but Sherlock still just gazed at her without a reaction.**

"**Say something then. Tell me I'm wrong; tell me that I'm not a failed experiment. That you keep me around because you care."**

**She looked at him expectantly, **

"**You can't, can you? Jesus that's all I am, a fucking head in a fridge." Her face crumpled and she turned to face the wall.**

**Sherlock sighed, and walked over to the bed. He sat down on it and reached out a hand to touch her shoulder. Awkwardly, he patted her shoulder. **

"**I never told you have I? About why I got you?"**

**She slowly turned to face him. Siting up she brushed the hair out of her eyes nd wiped her face. He could see where she had bitten her lip to stop the tears from leaking out.**

"**No. Only that Mycroft did all the paper work."**

"**I had just left university…"**

**15 Years Previously**

"**Sherlock, what are you going to do with yourself?" said Mycroft as he sipped tea from a bone china cup. The two Holmes' were having tea at the Ritz. All Mycroft's doing, thought Sherlock bitterly. All he had done was commandeer a London bus to stop a small terrorist cell from poisoning a museum and look where he had ended up. He didn't understand what the fuss was over; it had only been a small gun. Mycroft was still talking,**

"**And it's all so upsetting for Mummy" **

**Sherock snapped to attention.**

"**You told her?" he asked incredulously "That is underhanded in the extreme Mycroft, to try and blackmail into helping you with this ridiculous government position by telling tales on me." **

"**We installed you in that flat, under the impression that you had some sort of job in mind" his brother said dryly, "As far as I can see all you have succeeded in doing is hijacking a bus and needed help getting released without a record I might add!" **

"**Oh please" snorted Sherlock, "What do I care about police records? Their so easy to hack it's almost not worth the effort." **

**Mycroft looked at Sherlock strangely, almost with concern in his eyes.**

"**We're worried about you. Can't you see that? You're aimless Sherlock and it isn't good for you. I see you've continued your little habit as well." Mycroft looked over his cup at Sherlock, eyes glinting.**

"**Yes and how is the diet going Mycroft, you've lost what now half a stone?"**

"**3, well this has been fun Sherlock. But I really must be going" Mycroft picked up his umbrella, "If there is anything I can help with, you have my number"**

**Sherlock waited until he had gone before leaving. He walked out into the street and stopped a taxi. They drove in silence and when he got out and he remained silent as he paid the driver. Once he got inside his flat, he sat down and resting his chin on his arched fingertips thought about what Mycroft said.**

**Two days later, three repetitions of Bach, ten nicotine patches and four gunshots later, Sherlock had a plan. He called Mycroft and told him what he wanted, then he sat back and wited for the next stage.**

**Mycroft came around the next day. **

"**You cannot be serious Sherlock." Where his first words. "Even for you this is ridiculous," his voice did not raise above its normal pleasant tone, but Sherlock could tell he was rattled.**

"**Why not?" Sherlock drawled, "It appears to me to be an almost perfect solution. I'm occupied for a significant period of time which allows both you to continue running the government. The police don't need to worry about me commandeering another bus and Mummy gets a grandchild."**

**Mycroft sighed. "You're talking about a child Sherlock. Not another one of your appendages in a fridge, a child Who will need feeding, clothing, bathing, changing and educating"**

"**Yes I'm well aware of what a child needs Mycroft. I am aware of what it would need. Which is why this is a perfect plan, so much of my time would be spent looking after a child, I wouldn't have time to threaten civilians with a firearm."**

"**A valid point" Mycroft said dryly "But I'm not sure whether I should allow you to do this or at the least involve myself".**

"**Look at it from this point of view brother. I'm involving you, unwillingly in my plans and if you don't agree to help I will do so anyway without your permission and then I will simply disappear. Imagine how upset Mummy will be then?" Sherlock knew then from the look on Mycroft's face at such a prospect.**

**And so it was that a week later ,after Mycroft had insisted that Sherlock get a crib and clothed for the child, Sherlock was picked up and taken to St Bartholomew Hospital. There he was escorted up to the children's ward where there about twenty babies.**

"**Shocking isn't that this many children are abandoned outside a hospital in a week?" said Mycroft. **

"**You don't have to be here" said Sherlock**

"**And miss the chance to meet my niece or nephew. I think that you know me better than that brother." Mycroft looked across at the younger man, "You have ten minutes before I come back. That should be enough time for you to make a choice and with that he strode off flanked as ever by his assistant. **

**Sherlock entered the nursery. There were two rows of babies when of boys and one of girls. He walked down the narrow aisle; he had already decided that none of the crying babies deserved his attention. Unfortunately that didn't leave many, he was nearing the end of the row he noticed that he was being watched. **

**One baby who was roughly two day's old, was staring at him intently. He walked over to her crib; she was a girl as connoted by her pink blanket and her eyes were very dark as she stared. She just lay there not blinking or breaking his gaze, surrounded by her crying compatriots. He reached out a long finger not quite sure what he intended. But it didn't matter because his finger was grabbed and held by a tiny hand. **

**Without even realising he was doing it, Sherlock Homes, master of the cold face, reached down and scooped up the tiny body. Holding her against his chest, Sherlock wondered what was going on. In his big complicated brain, a new file was being created it was simply called **_**My daughter**_**. The child seemingly content that she had completed her plan had fallen asleep on his chest. And without another glance at the remaining children he walked out. **

**As Sherlock finished his narration, became aware that Squish hadn't moved throughout the time he had been talking. **

"**So I was an experiment?" she asked.**

**He thought about it, "not so much and experiment as an idea, and Mycroft made sure to say that I could give you back at any point. "**

"**But you didn't." She looked at him through her lashes.**

"**No, because I didn't want to"**

"**Why not? I can't imagine that the late nights, and the changings and the making sure I was fed wasn't really your thing" **

"**I don't know" He was being honest. He had always known that the option was available if he wanted it, but he hadn't ever wanted to. Squish sighed and sat down next to him heavily. **

"**God, I hate you sometimes Sherlock," she said, "but for better or worse you're the only dad I'm ever gonna get."**

**She got up and sighed. She went and opened her wardrobe and started flicking through t-shirts. Sherlock got up and went to the door.**

"**Sherlock"**

"**Yes?"**

"**Thank you, not will you please get out so I can get dressed." **

**Smirking, he left the room. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Sherlock was lying on the sofa, fully dressed in his usual suit, when Squish came out of her bedroom. The DVD player was just powering up, and Sherlock was flicking through adverts on the DVD. She dropped into the nearest armchair and hugged her knees. **

"**What we watching?"**

"**Breakfast at Tiffany's" he replied stretching out his long body, on the sofa. Squish made a noise of appreciation and settled down to watch the film. It wasn't often that Sherlock was able to simply watch a film, usually he talked his way through it ruining the plot twists for everyone, and this of course made the cinema an impossibility (they were already banned from the nearby branches of Odeon, Cineworld and Empire). But after a good few years he had been trained to watch a few select films. **

**Halfway through the movie just as George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn where having a party and a poor ginger cat without a name was thrown from shelf to shelf, it happened. Squish got up from her armchair went over to Sherlock, put her head on his chest and lay down next to him. She waited a few minutes and when he didn't move her she settled **

**She down. A few minutes later his arm snaked around her shoulder and he held her close. could hear his heartbeat, which was slow and steady and the steady rhythm soon had her drifting to sleep. By the time Mr Yunoshi was shouting that he was going to call the police, she was sound asleep. **

**This was how John found them when he came back six hours later. He was whistling as he walked back up the stairs and unlocked the door. He has spent an enjoyable day at Mary's and his lucky socks had worked. He had only left because Mary was working the night shift and had to get some sleep. Well some, he smiled. As he opened the door he could hear the sounds of the telly, slightly muted. **

"**Sherlock?" he said as he walked in, "Squish?"**

"**Shh, John." Said Sherlock from the sofa. **

**John walked into the living room, and stopped dead. Squish had her head resting on Sherlock's chest and was obviously sound asleep. Somehow Sherlock had managed to maneuverer his arm to get the remote, and was watching an omnibus of 90210. His arm that was not resting on the back of the sofa was around her shoulder. John hadn't seen Sherlock as much as hug anyone before and he must have been this way for hours. **

"**John would you mind taking the remote off me for a second?" Sherlock said like this was a normal occurrence. Without a word John did as he asked. **

"**Thank you" Sherlock carefully manoeuvred himself so that he was on the edge of the sofa then somehow managed to straighten up. John found himself staring at Sherlock who stared back bemused.**

"**She needs to sleep and I think she'll do so better in a bed" he said. Without another word he picked her up and took her into her bedroom. John stared after him, and then sighing went to put the kettle on.**

**Sherlock Holmes laid his daughter on her bed. He tugged the duvet over her and watched as she automatically pulled her legs to her chest. She curled up and pulled the duvet closer to her and turned to face the wall in her sleep. He waited till her breathing was regular and slow again then left the room. He took one final look at the sleeping figure on the bed and gently closed the door behind him. John was waiting in the kitchen, sipping a cup of tea. **

"**So?" he said, looking up at Sherlock.**

"**What John?" Sherlock said**

"**I have never seen you like this with anyone before" John said, "I mean you're not exactly known for your huggable nature"**

"**John, be quiet." On seeing his expression Sherlock sighed and softened his voice, "Please. Just drop it ok"**

**John watched as he slammed into his bedroom and sighed. He was going to need more tea.**

**Over the next few days things returned to normal, John drank tea and left for the surgery, Sherlock sulked; limbs appeared in the fridge, Lestrade called up with cases and the world returned to what had been its previous state. **

**After a week Squish came out of her bedroom and started sorting through the files and folders that had spilled their contents onto the floor. Sherlock was sitting at the table resting his chin on his fingertips. **

"**Sherlock! Have you seen my bag?" No answer, "Ahh"**

"**It's by the fridge" said John coming into the room, "and where are you going in such a hurry may I ask."**

"**I'm so late for work its stupid, my set starts in…" she glanced down at her watch, "half an hour, shit!"**

**John laughed, "I'm still getting over the fact that you work in a gay bar."**

**She glared at him, "It's not a gay bar! It's a music bar, that just so happens to have a clientele of a certain sexuality"**

"**It has multi-coloured bar lights, velvet upholstery and an entire lighting team for a giant stage.2**

"**ok, it may be a little gay, but it pays me twenty pounds an hour and I get a fair amount of attractive men cheering me on without them perving on me, so I view it as a good life choice." **

**She retrieved her bag from behind the fridge**

"**Right I'm off; I'll be back around, six"**

**By the time she got to 101 it was twenty minutes to her set.**

"**Shit, shit shit" she muttered as she snuck into the locker room, and was just managing to put her stuff in her locker and was trying to sneak backstage when she was spotted.**

"**And what time do you call this" said a man wearing a mike and a clipboard**

"**I'm so sorry Brian; I had to help Sherlock sort out a small problem."**

"**Oh well if it's Sherlock's fault that ok" The other man giggled.**

"**Brian, your engaged to Mickey" **

"**But that guardian of yours has one fine ass" he moaned.**

"**You keep telling yourself that" she laughed, she walked off towards the wings. She went and got miked up before heading out on the floor, she checked her watch. She had fifteen minutes till her set which was enough time to go out and serve maybe one or two drinks, and if she was incredibly lucky she might be able to get a twenty quid tip.**

**She went and grabbed a tray and a menu and waited until she saw a large party be seated by Marie the hostess. **

"**Hello and welcome to 101, I'm Squish O'Connor I will be your waitress for this evening. What can I get you?" she said with a smile.**

"**Well" said a soft irish lilt that made Squish's blood run cold, "I think I'll have… a little bit of leverage." **


	6. Chapter 6

**Shit thought Squish, fuck and bollocks. What she actually said was…**

"**Hello Jim, what else can I get you? But you're going to have to be quick, my set's in 5 minutes" **

"**Oh it's almost the weekend, so Scotch on the rocks for me and these others are working so nothing for them." **

"**Coming right up" she said and walked across the floor, "Dylan can you take a scotch on the rocks for table 2 please?"**

"**Of course I can" said the incredibly good looking, and very definitely gay man, "You ok? Look like you seen a ghost"**

"**Just tired" she replied with a smile plastered across her face, "sorry got to go, it's my set"**

"**Break a leg"**

"**Will do" outside she was acting completely normal, inside her head was ordered panic. Panic but ordered, she was making plans, trying to foresee what the next move was, she had an idea. **

"**Marie!" she hurried towards her friend before she had time to usher another couple to their table.**

"**What is it?" **

"**I need a favour. I need you to take some photos."**

"**What of, because the last time you wanted to photos taken it was of a dead naked man"**

"**It was in a bloody morgue and my phone memory was full. And just of the people in table two and on my phone so you won't get in trouble or anything, then I need you to text them to Sherlock."**

"**Why?" **

"**I can't tell you, please Marie, its important."**

"**Ok, fine but this better not get me into trouble, ok? I need this job."**

"**I promise thanks Marie, you're a star."**

**She legged it back stage as quick as she could.**

"**I know, I know, just calm down Brian, I'm here ok" **

"**You're on. Now!" **

**The music was coming on and she ran onto the stage. For the next ten minutes and thirty three seconds, all she focused on was the fact that a man, who may or may not decide to kill her depending on his mood and regardless may kill everyone she cared about or even everyone in that room, was watching her every move. Nothing else mattered as she sang and danced, her eyes remained connected to his. If she turned she spotted into his eyes and could feel her heart beating faster every second.**

**Finally her song was over and the bar erupted into applause. But all she did was watch him, and after what felt like an eternity, slowly he smiled. The sort of smile a snake gets as it traps a mouse. Somehow she managed to stumble off the stage and rebel Brian's attempts to engage her in conversations, she had to get to the locker room, and she had to get her bag and get out. Actually screw the bag; she just had to get out. She knew every back road in London it shouldn't be difficult to get back to Baker Street. But first she had to get out undetected. There was a fire escape that led to the roof, from there she could get to the next building, climb down and run. **

**She climbed the stairs to the first floor; the fire escape was just like in American movies. A window led out onto a narrow metal stairwell. The stairwell stretched upward to the roof above, and also led down to the ground below. Should she climb down? No, Moriarty most likely had men down there ready and waiting. He would of course have them on the roof as well but at least it was wider and she could run easier. Better not get trapped in a narrow space. She climbed out of the window and took the fire escape stairs two at a time. **

**By the time Squish had reached the roof, five minutes had passed since her number had finished, which was plenty of time for Moriarty to get someone to wait for her. In fact they might have been there for a while. Stupid Squish, stupid she silently berated herself, should have waited, asked Brian to walk you home, waited for Sherlock. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Cautiously she stuck her head above the gutter, couldn't see anyone and there wasn't anywhere for them to hide, she roof was completely flat. If she made a run for it now she may just make it. **

**She quietly leapt onto the roof. No one was around, and the roof of the next building was a few meters away. She ran for the edge of the bar's roof, not looking down she leapt the few meters between the rooves and landed perfectly. She breathed a sigh of relief she had made it. Now if she made her way down to street level, she could go and wait in the café, opposite for Sherlock to arrive. In fact she was sure he would in a few minutes, any chance to try and catch Moriarty he'd be there like a shot. **

**She made her way to the other side of the roof, this fire escape was a ladder not a stairwell, not that it mattered, she could find her way down a ladder blindfolded with one foot tied behind her back. She had made her way down a ladder with one foot tied behind her back, she sighed she really had wanted to go out that night. As she slowly made her way down the ladder, she felt her heart rate begin to slow down. She let out a breath of relief. **

**She landed in a dark alleyway with the rubbish bins, the smell of Chinese came from them and she remembered that the building which she had landed behind was a Chinese takeaway, she idly wondered if they had a back entrance. It would be easier to sneak through a large crowd. The sound of traffic and crowds reached her ears. It must be coming up to 7:30 or so she though glancing down at her watch, 7:35, Sherlock and John must be nearly here by now. She turned around looking for a way out of the alley. And a dark figure came into her line of vision.**

"**Oh my dear, you are sooo predictable" said James Moriarty, and that was the last thing she heard before a sharp pain flicked into her neck and she was falling into darkness with Jims smiling face and gleaming eyes looking down at her. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Squish slowly became aware that she could think again, but kept her breathing deep and her head hung. First things first, arms, legs all seem to be fine, no pain anywhere else, apart from a killer headache. She was sitting on something hard with… thin chain round her wrists; damn she didn't have a file so no way she could get out of that. Bugger.**

"**I know you're awake." Said Jim, "I have been waiting sooo long for you to wake up, I was beginning to think that I should have used a lower dose"**

**Squish raised her head and smiled her best, oh I always wake up tied to a chair nothing's wrong smile. **

"**Hello Jim. Whatever you gave me packed quite a punch. I think you've given me my first hang over. I presume that it's your own personal blend?"**

"**Only the best for you my dear, wouldn't want you to get any ideas about fighting me on your way here would we?"**

"**Of course not Jim, but the words date and rape unfortunately spring to mind, would anything have been wrong with a coffee after my shift?"**

"**Oh don't be like that darling. You didn't give me a chance to ask before you went off over the rooftops; I didn't have much choice and I so wanted to speak with."**

"**Can't a girl go for a stroll along the rooftops of London, which just so happens to culminate behind a Chinese takeaway, without someone knocking her out with a syringe full of unknown substances?"**

**Moriarty laughed, "Oh you can't darling, and I've got plans for you, it would be such a shame for them to go to waste. Now how's your head, it would be such a shame for you to be unable to grasp the full brilliance of my plans."**

**Squish gazed up at him, "Oh I'm recovering well, but can I say for the record, I'm a little bit disappointed?"**

**Jim raised one eyebrow. "Oh?"**

"**The whole prisoner tied to a chair thing, while her captor tells her his plans. Soo predictable. I thought you might have come up with something far… more… elegant"**

"**Oh the criminal class's today. To employ them you have to have to play by their rules a little. They expect a little bit of theatre"**

"**Oh and the big bad consulting criminal cares what his STAFF think? I don't think so… This was part of the game wasn't it? I think you're curious about how I would react. See what I would do when I woke up/ I think that you want to know whether Sherlock's experiment was a success. All with the added bonus of having bait too"**

**Moriarty leaned back on his heels and clapped his hands**

"**Oh I'm going to have so much fun with you little Holmes. You're like a portable Sherlock you know." He saw her blank expression flicker for a moment, "oh don't look at me like that, don't pretend that you don't know that already. Like you don't know that all people think is that you're a little pet of his. That all you are is a little child playing dress up in mummy and daddy's clothes."**

**He watched as she fought to keep a lid on her emotions. There were tiny signs but all too obvious to a genius like him. She bit her lip, her breath came just slightly too fast and her voice was a little harder when she next spoke. **

**Don't call me Holmes." Her voice was low.**

"**Ooh touched a nerve there haven't I? But ok if that's what you really want, let's play some more. Deduce me, show me you're more than a carbon copy of your… father?"**

**She stared at him coldly. But when she next spoke her voice had regained the slight cynical bounce to it.**

"**But business is good the Jim? It must be new suit you're wearing, Armani right? Classy, oh and I see you brought the matching underwear too, pricey. But I think that you've done this deliberately."**

**He waved her on with an amused look.**

"**Even the great Sherlock Holmes couldn't deduce you from your clothes without you giving him something, so all this is just for show. No the real prize is what I'm doing here"**

**She raised an eyebrow at him. **

"**No, no please keep going. You're just getting to the good part."**

"**I'm not the prize. Sherlock is." Her voice was a monotone, "I'm just the bait, you think he's going to come and get me. This is just a way to gather data about him. A way to help you win the game. But you're wrong."**

**Now he was perplexed, "And how did you deduce that one my dear."**

"**It must be over 24 hours or so, judging by the state of my clothes. Last time you tried this with John, Sherlock showed up in a matter of hours, he would have been ohh two minutes behind me so he would definitely have been able to find you quickly, the fact that he hasn't suggests he can't really be bothered."**

**Now this really was getting interesting Jim thought. She actually believed what she was saying, or she was a better actress the he had given her credit for. **

"**Oh I am sorry to disappoint you my dear. But that guardian of yours is very worried about you and the only reason that he hasn't found you yet, is because I haven't let him."**

**He held out his phone so she could read the texts**

**What have you done.**

**S.H**

**If she's hurt I'll kill you.**

**S.H**

"**Oh look you've even managed to get him to threaten me and I never could resist a challenge."**

**Now she was afraid and she gazed up at him desperately trying not to let him know but she couldn't quite mask the fear in her eyes. **

"**Oh you're giving me the look again. Don't worry darling I won't do anything to harm this pretty little face" She looked away and he dragged her chin up to face him, "Now that's not very nice is it, you should always look at someone when their talking to you."**

**She felt so much anger at him at that moment, anger that he could do anything to her. Anger that he was threatening the people she loved and she wanted to do something, anything to show him. So she spat at him.**

**Without a word he slapped her hard in the face. **

"**You shouldn't have done that." he said all frivolity gone from his voice "You made me break my promise"**

"**He's better then you." Squish said, "It doesn't matter what you do, who you threaten or kidnap or hurt, he will always beat you."**

"**Big words from the girl tied to a chair." Replied Moriarty as he beckoned two men closer.**

"**It's not a threat, it's a fact. And make sure you get my best side" she grinned crookedly even as the first man came forward and untied her from the chair.**

**She was led forward and the chain was wrapped around a hook hanging from the ceiling. **

"**Ready when you are honey" and she closed her eyes as the first punch came and the sound of camera was heard **


	8. Chapter 8

**Sherlock paced up and down the flat, only pausing to look at his phone. On the fifth repetition he shouted and threw his phone onto the sofa in frustration. John watched this with mounting concern. Lestrade stood next to him with something akin to shock on his face. Donavon and Anderson stood by the door and both looked as if they had been hit by a bus.**

"**Sherlock, it's going to be ok, we'll find her" said Lestrade "I have my best people out looking"**

**Sherlock turned to him with a withering look.**

"**Inspector sending your best men out is like saying you've sent monkeys out looking for her, so unless you have anything important to say just shut up."**

**John sighed internally, even in the middle of a crisis Sherlock found time to insult the people trying to help. Suddenly Sherlock's phone beeped and the room fell silent. Sherlock opened the messages, **

"**John I need your laptop." When no one moved he turned and looked at them all with a wild look, "NOW!"**

**John went and got it from the table and passed it over, Sherlock plugged his phone in and pulled up the photos Moriarty had sent. John stood over his shoulder and as the photos started to change, he felt his stomach turn over. **

**There were photos of cigarette burns on the girl's stomach and arms, three long cuts from a knife running parallel down her back. Her right side was black and blue were she had been repeatedly punched and one of her ankles looked like it had buckled underneath her where someone had most likely stamped on it. Some of the photos were of her with her arms suspended over her head and some of her sitting down, the last one was of Moriarty making the 'call me' gesture. **

**John watched Sherlock's face and for a second saw blind rage flash across his usually placid features. Then he seemed to control himself and the mask slipped down again. He started to look at the photos more closely. **

"**Oh you clever clever girl" he whispered, "You clever, brilliant girl."**

**John looked at him curiously, **

"**Look at what she's doing John. Look"**

**John looked at the photos again but could only see the horrible injuries. **

"**Sherlock I don't see…" Lestrade had come over and was also looking at the photos.**

"**Oh come on" Sherlock shouted, "Look properly look."**

**He looked around the room at their blank faces. **

"**Thank god it's not one of you being held by him, or we wouldn't ever find you. She's moving to get a different shot of the room every time, and look at her hands."**

**He spun and went around to the computer again. He flicked through the images until he found the shot he was looking for. Squish's arms were suspended above her head and while the main photo was of her side, she had somehow managed to point at a window which was slightly obscured by the top of the photo. He flicked to another one this time she was sitting on the floor while a man stubbed out his cigarette on her shoulders. John looked at her hands and saw she had spread out all five fingers on the one hand and two on the other. **

"**She's trying to tell us fifty two? But why?" **

"**The cigarette John!" The cigarette, she's telling us the ash is No 52."**

**At their blank stares, Sherlock moaned.**

"**Of my analysis? The tobacco ash is No 52, Honeydew Perique Tobacco."**

**He turned to Lestrade, **

"**Very few places sell that type of Tobacco and from that cigarette it was only bought that morning. I highly doubt that there is more than one that sell that type of tobacco near a warehouse on the east docks."**

**He was already grabbing his scarf and walking out the door.**

"**Come on John!" the smaller man was right behind him. **

**They got into the first taxi that pulled up,**

"**East docks please as fast as you can." Sherlock turned to John, "John her injuries, what's your opinion?"**

**John actually breathed a sigh of relief. He was worried about her; it wasn't just a game this time.**

"**The cuts on her back worry me, as does her ankle. I'd say from the photos that she has at the least cracked ribs and those will need to be bandaged quickly otherwise risk internal bleeding. But I don't think she'll die."**

**Sherlock sank back into the seat.**

"**I don't think I would be able to forgive myself if she's. If. If he's hurt her…"**

**John nodded and patted his shoulder, **

"**She'll pull through, we both know it. She won't LET him win."**

**Squish fell to her knees and curled up in a ball. Pulling her left arm towards her stomach she cradled it. Ok, she thought, 25 cigarette burns mostly over arms and stomach, three cuts down her back, she was most worried about the middle one the other two had mostly stopped bleeding while that one still trickled, her right ankle was probably broken where one of the men had stamped on it, right ribs definitely cracked and her left side was badly bruised. Her face though had been left alone apart for the bruise that had formed when he slapped her; she guessed Jim wanted Sherlock to know it was her. Overall not too bad, not bad at all. She was proud of herself, she hadn't screamed once apart from when her ribs were cracked and she had managed to get her message to Sherlock. **

**Jim came over to her crumpled body.**

"**Well done darling, that wasn't too bad, now was it?" She didn't say anything just stared at him. He didn't like that.**

"**I said was it?" he pushed down on her right side and, she screamed with the pain as he put pressure on her hurt ribs. When he stopped she was left panting for breath.**

"**Fuck you!" she spat the words at him with all the strength she could muster. **

"**And I thought we were going to be such good friends." He leaned back on his heels so his face was the only thing she could see, "I think the cavalry are on their way so I'd best be off, but do give my regards to Sherlock." **

**He stood up and clicked his fingers at the men who were standing in the shadows, all three of them left, one only stopping to give her kick in the ribs.**

"**Hey Jim!" she shouted ignoring the pain of her ribs, watching out of the corner of her eye as he turned and cocked an eyebrow at her.**

"**Laters!" Just then she heard more noises from outside and when she turned her head again they were gone, just as she could feel herself slipping into blackness, she could feel someone lifting her you gently, and heard a voice**

"**Are you allright? Are you allright!" Sherlock's voice sounded urgent and anxious, with what was the last of her energy she whispered in his ear,**

"**I think you should repost your tobacco ash analysis on the website" she tried a smile and fell back into the waiting arms of oblivion. **


	9. Chapter 9

**The halls of St Bartholomew's were quiet. Behind what seemed like hundreds of doors, people died and people lived. Machines beeped steadily and machines gave one long drawn out beep. In a private room where the door was flanked by two police officers, a tall man with curly hair stuck his head out the door**

"**Oh please" said Sherlock, "a paper bag would offer more protection then you idiots."**

**One of the police officers coughed nervously**

"**Procedure Sir, just to make sure no one else gets to the victim"**

**Sherlock's eye's narrowed,**

"**And what if someone was to try and get to her? What would you do? How would you spring into action?"**

**The two men looked at each other; the other man cleared his throat and nervously offered.**

"**We would assess the situation and, take decisive action Sir"**

**The taller man smiled grimly,**

"**My apologies gentlemen. A wet paper bag would be better protection" And with that he turned and disappeared into the hospital room.**

**John was sitting on the hard hospital chairs that squatted next to the bed. Squish lay in the bed with various tubes leading off into her. She looked smaller in the bed and Sherlock's chest tightened when he thought of the state she had been. Her ribs had been x-rayed and they were waiting for the results, until then they had been tightly bandaged as had the cuts on her back and the worst of the burns.**

"**John looked up as Sherlock re-entered the room, and resumed pacing the room**

"**She's going to be ok Sherlock, I checked her over myself and there won't be any lasting damage. A little bit of scarring, but that's to be expected."**

"**Be expected? John she was held hostage and tortured for over 24 hours by a certifiable psychopath and sociopath, whose self-proclaimed aim in life is to burn the heart out of me, I don't think you can say what's to be expected"**

**He threw himself down onto the chair next to John's and stared at the girl. The heart monitor continued to beep and Sherlock reached out a hand and took Squish's. He checked her pulse and nodded, but didn't let go of her hand. There was a knock on the door, John stood up as the doctor walked in,**

"**So?" he asked trying to look at the x-rays, Sherlock instead just stood up and took them off of the stunned man.**

"**So no abnormalities in the ribs then" he said after a cursory glance, "fractured as we thought, and the ankle?" he extended a hand and passed the tablet to John with the other who also looked at it and nodded, then passed it back to the doctor who in turn passed another x ray to Sherlock.**

"**As you can see the bone isn't…"**

"**Yes thank you" interrupted Sherlock, "You can go now" he said over his shoulder as he sat back down again.**

"**Look, thank you but we'll call you if there's any change" john said as he ushered the bewildered doctor from the room. **

"**Sherlock was examining the x-ray, **

"**She's been lucky, the bones only very badly bruised not broken"**

"**Yes, lucky" said a voice, "always lucky to know that your ankles only badly bruised not broken from your torture with a psycho." **

**Sherlock immediately turned to the bed. Squish's very tired face looked over the sheets. Her eyes were looking very dark and she looked somehow smaller than usual. Her eyes flicked to the left and right and John realised with a tugging at his heart that she was looking for her attackers. But there was still something in her face that told John she was going to be ok. **

"**Are you all right? How do you feel?"**

"**Like I've been mauled by a tiger, an elephant and a bus, but I think I'll survive." She tried to sit up but winced. "Yep definitely cracked the ribs. What's the damage elsewhere?" **

"**You've got cracked ribs which have been bound up, as have the cuts and burns, we're going to have to watch for infection in those, your ankles just badly bruised on the bone not broken like we originally thought but you are no allowed to walk on it for at least a week." John told her, as he sat down on the other side of her bed. He reached over and took hand, "We were worried about you. Weren't we Sherlock?"**

**The other man didn't say anything just sat down next to the bed. **

"**I am so so sorry." He said, as he reached out and took her other hand, "I am so sorry."**

"**It wasn't your fault Sherlock. I should have been more careful."**

**He leaned down and kissed her forehead, "I should have taken more care of you." **

**She squeezed his hand. The bruise on her face had gone from purple to a dark blue, it further emphasised how pale she was. Sherlock's long fingers caressed it. **

"**He won't ever hurt you again" he said quietly his deep baritone rumbling through his fingertips, "I promise"**

**There was a knock at the door and Lestrade came in. He looked at the scene and frowned **

"**The two at the door said you'd woken up. We need to talk to you about the men who umm assaulted you"**

**Immediately Sherlock was on his feet.**

"**You cannot be serious! Lestrade my daughter has just woken up from TORTURE that caused her to become unconscious. She has severe trauma to her body and you really think that making her relive it hours after it stopped, is going to help her or you find the people who did it?"**

**John had also gotten to his feet**

"**Gents can you please do this outside. It isn't fair to Squish, as her doctor I agree with Sherlock, she does need to rest and this isn't going to help her."**

**He stood between the two men and looked at the both. Sherlock refused to look away from Lestrade and it was Lestrade who looked away first. **

"**Ok we'll do this tomorrow, but I mean it Sherlock! Tomorrow." He left the room slamming the door with a bang.**

**Squish sank down into the pillows her white face almost lost against the starched linen, "Thank you. I don't think I could face it just yet."**

**Sherlock also sat down, "You don't have to until you're ready. No matter what he says. I swear you don't have to go through it till you want to"**

**Squish sighed, "I'm just so tired, I feel like I could sleep and sleep."**

**John reached out and took the hand not held by Sherlock, "Go to sleep sweetheart. I promise you'll feel better and we'll still be here"**

"**Well where else did you plan on being?" she asked as she began to slip away, "It's not like you have a date."**

**A little while later, there was another knock on the door, and Molly Hooper stuck her head around the door frame. **

"**It's the end of my shift. Do you mind if I come and sit for a bit?"**

**John shook his head and Molly took the last chair around the bed. They sat in silence and Molly then John fell asleep, and only Sherlock had his eyes fixed on the girl in the bed. **


	10. Chapter 10

**All was quiet in 221B, Squish was watching Waterloo Road from her position on the sofa, her foot propped up by the three pillows that Mrs Hudson had insisted be put under it and John was blogging at the table. Neither one of them had seen Sherlock for several hours as he had disappeared into his bedroom at around lunchtime and neither had ventured in to see what he was doing. Not that this was from lack of trying on the part of Squish. Although she was unable to move, she had nagged at john for the past half hour.**

"**Go on John, just poke your head round the door and see…"**

"**No"**

"**Go on, what harm will it do?"**

"**No"**

"**Just a little peek? Go on we don't know what he's doing. He could be building a nuclear bomb for all we know, and that is a health and safety risk."**

"**He won't be building a nuclear bomb in his bedroom" John said, pausing from his typing and looking across the room at her.**

"**Only because Mycroft banned uranium from the house after Mrs Hudson complained about the men in biohazard uniforms the last time" she said darkly. **

**John stared at her for a minute then jumped up and was making his way across the room to knock on the door, when they heard movement. John froze then hurtled across the room to throw himself into his chair and resume typing, just as Sherlock came out of his bedroom. He stared at the two of the, who stared innocently back, before resuming their chosen activities.**

"**Keys, keys" Sherlock muttered to himself as he patted down his jacket pocket. At this Squish's ears pricked up. **

"**Oh I'm sure; one of you can answer the door if I get locked out." Sherlock decided as he turned and went into the kitchen.**

"**Umm Sherlock" said John, "where are you going and what time will you be back?"**

"**Nowhere special. And what does the time matter?" Sherlock asked, as he scrabbled through a drawer. **

"**Well, I might be in bed and Squish can't move on that ankle and besides as her LEGAL medical carer I'm prescribing bed rest so she will be in bed by 10 anyway."**

"**I thought it was a good idea to tell the hospital that you were a doctor, and therefore able to legally take care of me and Sherlock do you have a DATE?" said Squish, turning from her position on the sofa and stared at the tall man**

**Sherlock looked at her. **

"**Where would you have got that information from?" he asked stonily. **

"**You do! I knew it! Who is it?"**

**Sherlock again simply looked at her.**

"**Oh My God. It's Molly, isn't it?" She waited for a reply, "It is!"**

"**YES!" Sherlock said, "Yes allright! Allright. I am going out for dinner with Molly and I don't know when I will be back. Are you happy?"**

**John also began to stare at Sherlock, "Sherlock are you serious? Are you actually going on a date?"**

"**Yes John." Replied Sherlock with a roll of his eyes, "as far as I know I'm not speaking Finnish. But if it makes you understand- Aion illallinen Molly Hooper."**

**And with that he turned and went out of the door.**

**Squish fell back on the cushions with a sigh and a giggle, which turned to a sharp intake of breath as her battered ribs also hit the side of the sofa. John looked at her in silence and bewilderment. **

"**How did you know?" She inclined her head at him; she looked puzzled, "about where he was going?" **

"**Oh, he asked about his keys. You don't want keys unless you don't want people to know when you come home. And his shirt"**

"**His shirt?" John asked with an incline of his head. **

"**It was the purple one."**

"**So" John was looking increasingly perplexed.**

"**Molly likes the purple one, she's said so and it's the one he thinks he looks particularly cool in and…while he was in the kitchen he kept checking how he looked in the fridge" **

"**Right. What time do you think he'll be back?" John asked as he turned back to his computer.**

"**I don't think anyone can deduce that." She said as she turned back to the television and began to flick through the channels. "This has never happened before John. This is something new."**

**A few hours later when London was quiet and the streets shone with the newly fallen rain. The taxi's stopped outside nightclubs and drunken women clambered in. Tramps reached for their empty bottles and finding them empty huddled a little closer to their doorways seeking warmth. And Sherlock Holmes walked Molly Hooper home. **

**They walked in amiable silence until they reached the outside of Molly's flat. **

"**Well this is me" she said, coming to a halt outside her door. **

"**I know" he replied, "I um I had a nice time tonight. Um with you." He clarified. He felt uneasy. Nervous, he hadn't felt like this for a very long time. **

"**Um, I… I did… I did too." Molly said, silently cursing her stammer. "Despite being thrown out of the restaurant."**

**He scuffed his shoe from side to side, "All I did was tell him a fact that he needed to hear"**

**Molly gave a small laugh, "You told him he needed to leave his mistress because his wife was pregnant." She shook her head, "with twins!" **

"**It was something he needed to know! I was trying to be kind!"**

"**I know" she said, thinking of another instance where he had tried to be kind, "I know."**

**He looked down at her awkwardly. He ran his hands through his hair worriedly.**

"**I'm sorry." **

"**Well um I should probably go inside" Molly said and started to walk towards the door to the building. **

"**Wait." Sherlock said, and he reached out and grabbed her hand, "just wait a second. Please"**

"**What is it?" asked Molly, blushing slightly at the contact between them. In all the time that they had known one another, she hadn't seen him touch another person intimately. The only other time she had seen him touch anyone, like he was touching her now was at the hospital, when his child was hurt and unconscious. **

"**I never apologised. For that day. Telling you that he was gay."**

"**Oh, don't worry about it. It's not important." she squeezed his hand, in what she hoped was a non-threatening way. **

"**It upset you. Of course it's important" **

**They stayed that way for a long time. Just holding hands. Inside Sherlock's mind, he was thinking a mile a minute. He was feeling nervous, excited, and strangely hopeful. He realised that his heart was beating faster than usual, his pupil's was dilating. This was… unusual. But not unpleasant **

**Finally Molly pulled away.**

"**Will I see you tomorrow?" she asked as she put her door key into the lock**

"**Definitely" he replied, "Goodnight Molly" She watched as he disappeared into the night. **

**It was nearly 12 O'clock by the time he got to the front door of Baker Street, he pushed at the door and realised that John would of course have left it open. There was a key in the door with a not that said 'Lock the bloody door; I don't want to be murdered in my bed. John.' **

**He smirked as he closed the door and locked it, but left the key in the lock. He climbed up the stairs and walked into the living room, he wasn't feeling particularly tired and it would be a good opportunity to check his experiment on how quickly the serotonin levels in toenails decreased after death. As he walked in he became aware that there was someone else in the room. Someone who was sitting in the darkened armchair. **

"**So how did it go?" asked Squish as she turned on the lamp, "your late home for someone who got thrown out of a restaurant by a screaming Italian man?" **

**Sherlock looked at her in something like shock, "News travels fast"**

"**Network of spies" from the look on his face, "Brian saw you as he was coming out the pub; he also said you walked away together?"**

"**I walked her home; I thought that what you did on dates."**

"**It is but its…you. And it takes 10 minutes for you to walk from the restaurant and 5 minutes from there to here so what happened…"**

"**Nothing we just talked" **

**She smiled mischievously, "then why are you blushing" she asked innocently.**

**Sherlock drew himself up to his full height then let out a deep breath, "Do you need help getting to bed"**

"**I can manage, the swellings almost gone anyway, I just wanted to make sure you were ok."**

**She slowly got to her feet and reached for the crutches, wincing as she put a little of her weight onto her foot. She carefully made her way through the teetering piles of folders like a long legged spider **

"**Goodnight Sherlock" she said and vanished inside. He looked after her, yet another thing for him to ponder, maybe there were a few patches left in the box under the floorboards. **


	11. Chapter 11

**A few weeks passed uneventfully at Baker Street, John having dutifully attended to Squish's ankle was happy to let her walk on it without the aid of the crutches. This marked a return to business as usual and though there were no more gunshots in the early morning, Sherlock did begin to drag them out late into the night once more. Squish returned to her job though John insisted that someone walk her to and from Baker Street and on occasions would give her his own gun for safety. To the surprise of everyone Sherlock continued to see Molly, to the extent that Squish demanded to know his intentions, but was brushed off with a characteristic, terse and sarcastic reply. **

**One morning, a month after the first date, Squish came into the living room, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and yawning to find Sherlock sitting opposite Mycroft who was sat in the chair normally inhabited by John. Having surveyed the scene sufficiently she tried to quickly and quietly leave the room and barricade herself in her own bedroom. She was pretty sure that there was a bottle of coke and a chocolate bar that would tide her over until Mycroft left, and as his visit were notoriously brief that wouldn't be longer than half an hour. **

**However as she turned to leave, Mycroft's polite slow voice stopped her.**

"**Ah Squish, I have been meaning to drop in. How are your injuries recovering? I understand from your records that they were quite severe?"**

**Squish slowly turned once again, silently cursing herself for not having a lie in, she smiled at her uncle.**

"**Their improving, thank you Mycroft. John says that he can't see any complications with how the ribs are healing and the ankle's now pretty much back to normal."**

**Mycroft smiled. **

"**How many times must I insist that you call me Uncle, my dear? Even if my brother treats you like a stranger, I feel it's important that you feel that the Holmes' are your family. And the scratches on your back? How are they healing?"**

**Sherlock interjected here, his deep voice under laid with sarcasm, "They aren't scratches Mycroft. They are deep cuts. From a knife." **

**By this point Squish had made her way across the room and was perching on the arm of Sherlock's chair, and put her hand on his shoulder, gently warning him to be polite.**

"**Much improved. We think that only the middle one will scar and the bandages are coming off in a few days."**

"**Oh good I am glad. I was hoping that you would wear the backless dress that I gave you for Christmas. It would be perfect for the occasion and of course it would be a shame to waste it"**

**Sherlock leaned forward in his chair, "and as I said brother, we aren't attending."**

**Mycroft sighed and also leaned back, "Sherlock, its Mummy's birthday, and she hasn't seen you or her granddaughter in months, you're coming and that's that."**

"**And I have to decline the invitation. For one thing I am in the middle of important case and for another Squish has important meeting with the hospital on Monday. Please don't let the door hit you on the way out."**

**Mycroft reached into his briefcase and laid some shots on the coffee table, "I imagine if these happened to make their way to Mummy's desk, she would be only too happy to come down and see you for herself."**

**Squish picked up the photos and gasped. The shots were from a CCTV camera and she recognised the outside of Molly's apartment building. The foreground of the shot was two people kissing, each shot zoomed in until the shot was of the two faces. They were of Sherlock and Molly, her hands were entwined in his hair, and his were cupping her face. It was an intimate moment and Squish felt herself blushing that she was intruding on it, but angry that Mycroft had the audacity to violate it. She passed them to Sherlock, whose eyes narrowed. **

"**When did this happen" she asked, as he flicked through the photos. **

"**Last week" he said shortly and tuning to Mycroft, "this is low even for you brother."**

**Mycroft shrugged his shoulders indifferently, "You relationship with Ms Hooper…"**

"**Dr Hooper, Mycroft, Doctor, she did attend medical school and they don't just give medical degrees out to anyone. "**

**Mycroft stiffened slightly, "As I was saying, you relationship with DR Hooper is of little interest with me, but I doubt the same could be said of Mummy, and I'm sure that if you don't see her this weekend and these photos happen to be anonymously posted to her, I believe you'd have a house guest."**

**Squish stood up now; when she spoke her voice would have frozen the summer, "You've made our position perfectly clear **_**uncle**_**, and we'll get back to you shortly, now please don't less us distract you from the upcoming Ghanaian elections. Goodbye."**

**Mycroft stared at her hard and unblinkingly then smiled and nodded his head. Gathering up his umbrella and briefcase he rose to his feet, he (very deliberately Squish thought) left the stills on the table, he then left the flat and the sound of the front door closing could be heard from the flat. Squish turned to Sherlock who was still examining the photos**

"**Are you ok?" she asked as she made her way into the kitchen, finally able to make herself some tea. **

"**Hmm. Yes, these photo's aren't fake mores the pity, Mother is sure to have seen right through the if they had been, shame" **

**Squish sighed and all but fell into the chair, clutching her mug like a drowning ma clings to driftwood. "I meant you Sherlock. Your brother is blackmailing you with photos of your first kiss"**

**Sherlock looked up at her surprised, "what do you mean my first kiss?"**

**She snorted, "Oh please it's all in your technique. The classic slightly far away stance so you can pretend that you were aiming for her cheek if she doesn't kiss you back. The slightly too angled head, slightly awkward initial start, all in the technique" **

**Sherlock stared at her bewildered, "You sound knowledgeable. Why?" **

**Squish stared back at him, now it was her turn to be bewildered, "You really don't know? And you can't deduce it?"**

"**Oh I've known for some time that you've been meeting a boy. For about three weeks or so correct? I followed you actually. When you went to the park? He's quite tall isn't he? But you kissed him! And I didn't know. That's…strange"**

"**YOU FOLLOWED ME? WHILE I WAS ON A DATE! YOU ARE SUCH A TWAT! "**

**And with that she stormed off into her bedroom, making doubly sure to slam the door behind her. The noise resonated through the flat, and caused John to come running into the living room, **

"**What have you done now?" he said to Sherlock exasperatedly.**

**Sherlock jerked from his reverie, "Oh it's not important, you need to start to pack."**

"**Umm why?"**

"**Oh you're coming with us to Mummy's birthday party. I mean where would we be without our blogger?" he said with a smirk. **


	12. Chapter 12

**John sighed as he stared, at his wardrobe. He had no idea what he should wear and he doubted his normal supply of jumpers and shirts would fit in amongst the Holmes', if Sherlock's suits where anything to go by. He was digging through his drawers trying to find a jacket he hoped would pass as semi-formal when Squish wandered in. **

"**I came to make sure you're coming with us." she announced and fell heavily onto his bed with a sigh, "God I wish I was old enough to go to the pub. I need to be drunk."**

**John sighed and looked up from his shirts, "You're too young to drink, and anyway what can possibly be that wrong."**

"**If you don't want me to drink, don't leave very very, nice Irish whiskey lying around and did your father ever follow you when you were on a date? With a boy. If you haven't then don't tell me nothing can be wrong."**

"**He didn't?" John said, "He can't of?" **

**Squish nodded sadly then fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes; John sat down next to her, "Tell me about the boy."**

**Squish opened one eye and blew a strand of her off her cheek, "He came into the bar, his brother was having an 18****th**** birthday party with his boyfriend and it was my first set since Moriarty. You were there."**

**John nodded remembering, it had taken twenty minutes to convince Sherlock that they should make sure that Squish would be ok, Sherlock's argument being that John had given her his gun and they would provide less protection then a gun, but eventually he had given in and of course it all been fine even if Brian's flirting had gone over Sherlock's head and he had been chatted up three times. Now thinking about it, he could remember the party, it had been a large group and they're had been a lot of kisses round a big blonde guy. He didn't know who could have asked Squish out though; they had all been a lot older than her. **

"**Then?"**

**She looked up at him through her lashes, why did she and Sherlock both had two completely different looks, that both made John feel like he was missing something obvious, she sighed.**

"**He came back the next day and waited after I finished and asked for my number, I asked for his, we exchanged numbers, we texted, we went out. And then Sherlock stalked us through the park." **

**John raised his eyes to the heavens, why did he live here? Why did he not live with a normal person?**

"**It's his warped way of worrying about you. Now please help me pack. I have no idea what passes for smart, casual or smart casual. I don't even know what pyjamas to pack!"**

"**The fact you're packing pyjamas is adorable." She said as she went and opened his drawers, "Couple this shirt with that jumper, and those trousers." She said pulling out the items and throwing them onto the bed, "Wear that for casual, for smart, this shirt with this jacket and mmm those trousers, at a push they'll pass for smart chinos."**

**John gathered up the clothes and sighed, "Jesus how do you do that? You've just made three different ways I would never have worn those clothes in"**

"**Put it this way, Sherlock was never the greatest at buying multiple choices for outfits, why do you think he wears the shirt so often?" She finished throwing clothes at the bed, "If you wear the trainers with the casual and your work shoes with the smart stuff, we might be able to get through this weekend alive." **

**John finished folding clothes, and said, "Is it really that bad" he asked as he started to put the clothes into the case.**

**Squish walked to the door; "Oh you are going to have such a shock." she said and walked out, leaving a very worried looking John behind her.**

**Two days later the three of them piled into the taxi. Well John and Squish piled in, Sherlock got in effortlessly and John admitted elegantly. Squish immediately put on her headphones and stared out of the window, Sherlock stared into space and John watched the English countryside go by. Eventually the car pulled up to some large gates. John was reminded of a picture book he had had when he was a kid, there had been a picture of the Selfish Giant's gate. Dark black iron rose upward culminating in spikes that pierced the sky. The taxi inched forward and then drove through quickly as though they were being chased by an invisible person. **

**Eventually they arrived at a house. Well not really a house. More of a castle John thought as he got out of car in awe. Squish was already out and grabbing her bag from the boot of the car, Sherlock was also moving towards the house and John saw that Mycroft was emerging from the gaping maw of the house. **

"**Hell Dr Watson." He said smoothly as he reached forward to grasp his hand, "So glad you could come"**

"**I gather we didn't have to much choice" John said as he shook Mycroft's hand, "But this..." gesticulating wildly, "Is amazing. Truly amazing"**

**Sherlock was at this point disappearing into the darkness of the house, "I imagine John will be in my wing? Of course, come on John" and without another glance he disappeared coat flapping behind him. **

"**Better do as he says" Mycroft said slipping his hand away, "Squish will show you were to go"**

**John looked behind him to see that all the bags were out of the car and Squish was struggling to carry if them to the hall of the house. **

"**Oh no, you don't" he said, rushing forward to help her, "As your doctor and the only reason you're not still in hospital, I'm saying you're not allowed to carry anything for this weekend, those bandages only just came off and there is no way you're going to hospital saying you split the stitches. My reputation would be in tatters!" **

**She laughed and smiled up at him, "Come on. It's time to blow your tiny mind."**

"**Oh my god." John said twenty minutes later, Squish was just sitting on a chair laughing. **

"**I mean seriously. Seriously?"**

"**Yep and you've been saying that for the past three minutes."**

**John looked over at her in amazement, "He has a WING of the house. A wing!"**


	13. Chapter 13

**John sighed and paced a bit more outside of Sherlock's bedroom. He pulled at his shirt collar uncomfortably and once again he looked down at what he was wearing, he admitted that he looked smart but he was suffering from jumper deprivation. **

"**John." he heard Sherlock call through the door, "Come in, you're very distracting, I can hear your pacing through the door."**

**John sighed and pushed the door open. Sherlock was lying on his bed fully clothed (the bed was a big four poster, obviously, John thought) texting. **

"**How exactly can I distract you from texting?" John asked, as he sat down heavily on one of the chair that littered he room**

**Sherlock looked up at him witheringly, "What you mean is no one can distract you from texting" he replied "and that is because you are only able to do one thing at a time. You look fine by the way." **

**John looked down at himself for the one thousandth time, "Thanks, where's Squish?"**

**Sherlock nodded towards a door that connected through to another room, "She's still getting ready, and she's been putting on her make up for an hour."**

**John looked around the room for the first time, and noticed how similar it was to home. Folders vomited their contents onto the floor; armchairs were dotted around the room. And there was the ever present chemistry set on top of the fridge which John wouldn't look in if you paid him. There were also skulls dotted everywhere, and the one on the mantelpiece made John once again felt uneasy about Sherlock's dealings. **

**John looked over at the door, "why is there a connecting door between your rooms?"**

**Sherlock looked up and put his phone down, John heard him sigh, "John I really do wonder what you've done to your brain, she was a baby John and then a small child, I couldn't leave her alone."**

"**Oh please" said a voice, "You left me alone with a bottle of hydrochloric acid and a Bunsen burner when I was six."**

**Squish stood in the doorway, and John gasped. The dress she was wearing was backless and the neck was low. Her hair was down and had a wave running through it and the effect was one of an early Hollywood film star. But John was more focused on something else.**

"**You look... You…"**

**Squish also sighed, "John I'm a fifteen year old girl, you're a doctor you know how puberty works. I have breasts. So look up here, not down there."**

"**I wasn't… I would never… umm"**

**Squish laughed and walking over to him, patted his arm.**

"**I'm only joking John, but I don't know what you're worrying about" she looked over at Sherlock, "he's not exactly paying attention. Is he?" **

**Sherlock raised one eyebrow, "I am able to focus on more than one thing at a time you know?"**

"**So you just choose not too?" she asked wide eyed. Sherlock rolled his eyes and looked back down at his phone. "And how is Molly" she asked, completely innocently gazing up at him from her eyelashes.**

"**Fine" he said "although she does have some idea that this evening will be 'fun'" **

**John stood up, "Sherlock you do possess a cynicism that no one else I have ever met has, right Squish" he looked over at her, as she sat on the bed next to her adoptive father. **

**John was struck by the similarities between them. They had the same way of holding their head and this gave an idea of similarity between them. Then she smiled and the illusion was lost. **

"**Unfortunately John I agree with Sherlock in this case. Grandmother will parade us in front of her guests then I will have to 'mingle', while you and Sherlock are interrogated, before I will have to sing to her a collection of songs that carry 'meaning' for me, capped off with cake and sherry."**

"**John grimaced, "please tell me Christmas is better?" **

"**What do you think?" she asked with a face of exaggerated disdain, "Though it is entertaining to watch Sherlock and Mycroft fight."**

**Sherlock swung off the bed and stretched out his long body, he smirked at the other two.**

"**Into the breach once more?" he asked offering his arm to Squish, who took both his and John's.**

"**Let's, but I'm allowed to punch whoever calls me a dear little girl?" **

"**Agreed" John laughed and the left the room. **

"**So Sherlock tell me about this girl" said Penelope Holmes as she sipped from a glass of champagne and looked over her spectacles, "What does she do?"**

**John saw how Sherlock's upper lip trembled a little bit as his jaw tightened.**

"**I told you Mother, she's a pathologist."**

"**Oh well that's not a very girly thing to do. All those dead bodies, it's a little morbid dear. And Catrina has been asking about you."**

"**Mother, Catrina is my cousin!" **

"**Second cousin Sherlock, don't exaggerate." She turned to John, "he's terrible for exaggeration Doctor, I don't know how you live with him"**

**John chuckled slightly awkwardly, "Practice Mrs Holmes, practice and a blind eye."**

"**Oh please dear, call me Penelope, and I believe you are forgetting the patience of a saint. Now have you seen my granddaughter?" she twittered, "Its time she sang for her grandmother, She does have a lovely voice you know, quite unique…"**

**At that particular moment Squish was deftly flirting with one of the guests and hoping that Sherlock was behaving himself.**

"**You do seem young to be a colonel." She offered and smiled up at the tall man who smiled back**

"**It's a myth that the army don't reward those people who are good at their jobs" the man replied, "but I would rather talk about you. Is it correct that you are our hostesses' granddaughter?"**

**Squish laughed, "Adopted granddaughter but yes that's right. Sherlock is my father and Mycroft's my uncle."**

"**Fascinating" her companion breathed, "I've read his website you know and John Watson's blog. Wonderful stuff, truly enthralling. So it's true that you were kidnapped by another genius?"**

**Squish frowned, "I'm not sure I would call him a genius." She said, really looking at the man for the first time, "More of a psychopath wait a minute…"**

**She stared at him and her eyes widened in horror, "You know him don't you?" she whispered**

**Seb Moran smiled, "Congratulations." She said, "and I do mean that, that was what four minutes? Impressive"**

**She stood, head erect and chin thrust forward in defiance, "Will you please tell me what you want so I can move on with my life?" she asked languidly though her heart was beating like a drum. **

"**We just wanted to let you know that Jim is still very interested in how Sherlock's little experiment will work out. And now your little friend is a very interesting development."**

"**Don't you touch him." She spat at him, "But please do pass on my regards to Jim, and please let me congratulate me on his choice of **_**employees**_**. They do have in depth knowledge of how to scar a girl.**

**He threw back is head and laughed, "Oh I will, and I hope next time I'll have the pleasure of being involved in that activity. It's been charming talking to you and remember we'll be in touch."**

**With that comment she watched as he melted into the crowd. **


	14. Chapter 14

**John appeared from the swirling mas of people and came over to her with a pained look on his face. **

"**I'm sorry to tell you that your grandmother asked if I knew as a doctor if Sherlock has a low sex drive and if so how to rectify it" When he saw the look on her face, his face changed and he immediately became concerned. **

"**What's wrong?" he asked "you look pale, are you feeling ok?"**

**Squish turned to him and calming the onslaught of fear, disgust and horror, instead she forced herself to smile soothingly at John. **

"**Just feeling a little bit hot. And of course the only drink available is champagne or whiskey, which I have been told is unsuitable for my age."**

**John still looked a little uneasy but Squish pressed on.**

"**Does she want me?" she asked, slipping her arm through his and dragging him through the crush.**

**He nodded distractedly, **

"**I think we should hurry. When I left your grandmother was asking about whether Molly was fertile and he was about this close to punching someone or opening his mouth."**

"**I'd prefer him to punch someone" Squish decided, "that way we could pretend he's drunk"**

"**Can't we anyway?" John said as they advanced towards the lanky figure of Sherlock, "or we could say that he's on drugs."**

"**Yeah that'll do your reputation a world of good" she scoffed as they drew level with Sherlock, who turned to them with a look of pain on his face.**

"**John tell me you have your gun on you?" he said flatly, "I need to shoot my mother." Squish reached out a hand and soothingly patted his arm. **

"**Go and wind up Mycroft for a bit." She said calmly, "I'll look after her for a while and you'll feel better" He looked down at her oddly and seemed to take a step back for a second, before nodding. She gently pushed him away from her and he disappeared into the swell of the crowd. She turned to John as well.**

"**You go too." She said quietly, "There are loads of woman here who are single and all rich girls like a man in uniform"**

"**I'm not in uniform anymore" John pointed out and gestured at his attire. **

"**You're close enough." She said and steered him away from her as well, "go on, go find yourself a posh totty!" He grinned at her and followed Sherlock into the crowd. She waited until she was sure that they both had gone and her smile slipped from her face. She shivered and looked around, she knew that Moran or another of Jim's spies would be looking at her right that second, she felt very exposed. And afraid. Just at that moment a bejewelled hand grabbed her own. Immediately her smile was back in place and she was reaching down to kiss a wrinkled cheek. **

"**Hello Grandmother" she said as she straightened up and elegantly took a champagne flute off of a passing waiter **

"**Hello my darling girl." The old woman cried, "How are you? I have missed you. And worried about you" she scolded, you don't ever write to me. It's enough to break my heart."**

**Squish sighed and seated herself down on a nearby footstool at her Grandmother's feet. "Grandma, I text you and email you every week." **

**The old woman sighed, "It's not the same is it? Besides I don't hold with all this technology, I heard it can give you the C word."**

**Squish smirked a bit but ceased immediately as her grandmother scowled at her.**

"**Really Squish, Cancer is not a laughing matter." This last bit was said in a lowered tone as if by even saying the name cancer might begin its wicked assault on their bodies and mind. **

"**I'm sorry Grandma. I shouldn't say that. But anyway happy birthday, now don't I have a song to sing?" she asked as she stood up. The old woman clapped her hands and asked for sherry.**

**Four hours later Squish collapsed on her bed exhausted. The party was still going on though her grandmother had retired long ago. She had been trapped by a banker and a hedge fund manager who had tried to get her to play strip poker with them. She had politely refused and when they had persisted she had refused not so politely. Unfortunately for them the sound of her swearing had attracted her father.**

**Sherlock hadn't sworn at them or even deduced them. Instead he had punched both of them in the face and swept her a way in a cyclone of cheekbones and ego. He had told her to go to bed because they were leaving early tomorrow. When she had asked why, he replied that he couldn't stand another second of Mycroft 'telling me I should send you to school, like you'd learn anything there', she could hear him now poring chemicals into a test tube and a Bunsen burner being lit. These were the sounds of her childhood, that and the sweet melody of a violin that change to a storm in any moment. With these familiar sounds she was soon fast asleep. **

**1 week later she leant against the wall of Speedy's and began hyperventilating rapidly. A boy stood over her shoulder with a concerned look on his face. He reached over and gently pulled her towards his chest,**

"**What did I say?" he asked, "I only asked if your dad was in so I could meet him." **

"**And he is in" came Squish's voice muffled by the fact that her face was buried in his t-shirt, "and that's why I'm freaking out" **

**He gently pulled her face up and looked down at her, he didn't notice her shiver as she remembered another man who had done the same thing but in a much different context. But all thoughts of Moriarty vanished from her mind as he reached down and pressed his mouth against hers. When he lifted his head again, all she could do was smile in a strange stupor, he reached don and took her hand.**

"**So now can we go in" he asked as he pulled her towards the door, "he can't be all that bad"**

**She sighed as she put her key into the lock. "You have no idea" she said as she led him inside. **

**She grabbed his hand and squeezed it, "Just remember I'm adopted ok" she whispered as she took him up the stairs towards the flat, "Please?" **

**They stood in the sitting room and Squish gazed at the man who had raised who gazed back unblinkingly. **

"**Sherlock?" she said, "This is Alex. My umm boyfriend" Alex stepped forward**

"**It's pleasure to meet you sir." He said nervously, running a hand through his hair, "Squish has told me a lot about you." The silence was palpable and still Sherlock stared.**

"**Right" Squish said, "Well we'll be in my room if you want us. Ok?" and without another word she led Alex over the threshold into her room and closed the door. She sank visibly and then literally after the door had closed and sighed with relief as she leant against the wall.**

"**I thought that went quite well, all in all" A smile playing on her lips, as she leant upward and kissed Alex who looked both bewildered and bemused at the same time.**

"**Is he always like that" he asked as he joined her on the floor. **

**Squish put her head on his shoulder, "Like what?" she asked, "creepy? Starey? In answer to the first one, yes in the second no. He's normally much more talkative."**

**Alex nodded and kissed the top of her head. **

"**So what are we going to do?" he asked.**

**She smiled up at him, "I have a chess set and I don't think you could beat me in a month of Sundays."**

"**Yeah." He smiled, "we'll see about that."**

**A few hours later, John came in with three bags of shopping. **

"**Don't mind me then" he said at Sherlock who lay across the sofa with three nicotine patches on his arm. **

"**Hmm?" Sherlock mumbles, "s0orry John I was just trying to figure out if Squish's boyfriend believes in god or not? Ridiculous idea God"**

"**We've had this conversation Sherlock" john said as he put teabags in a cupboard and even you can't find that out about a person without having seen them"**

**Sherlock sat up lowly, "Oh I've seen him, and he's in her bedroom now"**

**John stopped dead, "You mean now?" he asked his voice shaking.**

"**Yes John now. And he's obviously an atheist. Good I like him more and more every second."**

"**Sherlock, your fifteen year old daughter and her boyfriend are alone in her room and you don't think that you should be worried?" **

**Sherlock gave him an exasperated sigh, "Please John, he obviously convinced het into letting him meet me. It is therefore unlikely that after making a good impression he would ruin it by losing his virginity mere minutes after meeting me in the room next door, is it?"**

**But John was already half way across the room and opening the door to Squish's bedroom. He briefly saw the two of them lying on her bed playing chess before Squish was shouting and forcibly ejecting him from the room. **

"**JOHN GET THE HELL OUT!" She screamed as she slammed the door behind him. John turned and was visibly surprised to see that Sherlock was doubled up with laughter. **

"**What so funny?" he demanded as he walked back to the kitchen and started making a cup of tea.**

"**You." Sherlock said simply, "I mean it's not every day you the one to commit the social faux pas while I was the one who right is it?" **


	15. Chapter 15

**Squish was sleeping soundly. He could hear that her breathing was slow and even. It was beginning to become light outside but the clock read only 7:00. The whole room was peaceful and quiet Sherlock thought as he reached out a hand to shake her awake.**

"**Sherlock? What the fuck?" she said sleepily as she sat up and pulled her hair into a ponytail. **

"**Squish, get up." He replied as he pulled open the curtains, "we're out of milk, bread and tea."**

**Squish stared at him in disbelief, "You noticed? You, as in you, actually noticed the lack of groceries?"**

**He sighed, "Yes squish and we need to go shopping."**

**With that remark she leapt out of bed and opened the door of the wardrobe.**

"**Give me five minutes and I'll be by the front door, wait for me there." When he didn't move, she turned as she pulled her t-shirt over her head, "Go on, Sherlock Holmes shopping? This I have to see!"**

**An hour later Squish was pulling him into a coffee shop. **

"**We've just been shopping" Sherlock whined, "why do we have to go and get something eat?"**

**Squish pulled out a chair from underneath the table, "because I haven't eaten for over 8 hours and you haven't eaten in 2 days so we are eating cake for breakfast ok."**

**Sherlock sighed and took up a menu, "fine but if we get a case then I will be blaming you for making me digest."**

"**What can I get you" a voice said from above them.**

"**Hi, thanks I'll have the" Squish's voice dies in her throat as she looked up at the man who was taking the order. Sherlock also looked up and he felt his muscles tighten. The game was on. **

**Squish's whole body felt like it was on fire as Jim slid into the seat next to her so he faced Sherlock. Sherlock by comparison seemed to be almost enjoying seeing his enemy, God he terrifies her sometimes. **

"**Well it's not often we get to meet face to face, is it Sherlock" Jim said, as he stared into Sherlock's eyes. **

"**Not without some sort of hostage situation." Sherlock replied smoothly. Jim laughed**

"**Haven't you seen who I'm sitting next to?" he asked, "meet my hostage."**

**Sherlock raised an eyebrow coolly, "She's sitting opposite me and you have no hold on her, I hardly think she's a hostage is she?"**

**Jim frowned, "I can see how this will be confusing without full knowledge of the facts, but I am a little disappointed that you didn't think of this. But I suppose you are worried about your child so maybe I'll let you off." He turned in his chair and tapped the table behind them "Sebby darling. Will you come over here a second?" **

**Sebastian Moran sat down on Squish's other side, "Beginning to see it yet?" he asked. Squish was surprised to see that he reached around the back of the chair and caressed the back of Moriarty's head. "So Jim from I.T wasn't completely a lie then?" she asked as calmly as she could, when you're sitting next to a psychopath and his violent sniper of an assassin. **

"**Why put labels on things darling?" Jim purred, "I mean both and you and your daddy here are delicious but I'm sorry to say that it's your dear Papa that I'm interested in at the moment."**

**Sherlock spoke again, this time though there was the tiniest hint break in his calm, "Let her go Jim, she doesn't give you anything that I don't have already"**

**Jim cocked his head to one side and gave a little giggle, "Even if I didn't already know that I need some sort of physical leverage for you to play the game, little Squishy here has already been made a player in the game. Not a major one but I had to give Seb here a reason to play when I have no intention in sharing your lovely self."**

**Seb nuzzled the side of Squish's neck, and she was unable to stop herself from stiffening as a shudder of revulsion ran through her body.**

"**I believe that you promised something to do with scarring?" he whispered, his breath hot in her ear and all she could do was watch and try and keep calm as Sherlock's face changed as a look of anger and panic crossed it.**

**Jim laughed and stood up, "shall we get this show on the road then?" Sherlock deliberately stood next to Squish as they were led by Jim out of the café with Seb bringing up the rear. A black car with darkened windows pulled up and Jim motioned for the pair of them to get in the back. Sherlock nodded at Squish to do so and quickly followed her in. He looked at her white face and gently took one of her hands in his and squeezed it gently, she turned her eyes to him and gave him a small smile. It was shaky, but there and he took some comfort in it as they drove off in a cloud of smoke and tyre squeals. **

**They drove for a long time and eventually pulled up outside a warehouse. The car hadn't quite stopped before Jim got out. He held put a pair of blindfolds from his pocket.**

"**Tah dah" he smiled at them, "It's time for the game to begin" **

**They allowed the blindfold to be placed over their eyes. Squish reached out her hand and feeling Sherlock's long fingers with their callused tips from long hours playing the violin, and grasped them tightly in hers. She felt his thumb reassuringly stroke the back of her hand as a reminder of his presence. They walked for a while and the floor sloped downward and Squish realised that they were in a tunnel. She knew roughly were their starting point had been and utilising her knowledge of the London Underground (both present day and abandoned Sherlock was nothing but thorough) realised that they were still in the city but heading towards central London. She knew that Sherlock knew as well probably to a much more specific location and she knew that Moriarty would know that they knew and that scared her more than she had ever been scared in her life. **

**Eventually they began to ascend once more and she could see a glimmer of light behind the blindfold. A hand pushed her through a door and she could feel someone behind her. The blindfold was taken off and she was in a small room with fluorescent lighting. Seb was standing behind her with a smile.**

"**Hey there baby" he said**

**Sherlock stood in front of her, "Leave her alone Moran" he said, his baritone voice heavy with that special Sherlock charm that said don't be so stupid I know so much more then you can even dream, but Moran just stood there unblinkingly **

"**You aren't always going to be there to stop me." He told him flatly and blew a kiss at the pair of them before leaving. They were in a small room with white painted walls and a metal door with a flap in it, the floor had recently been concreted over. **

**Sherlock prowled around the room like a caged bear and began to talk to himself.**

"**No one in here for at least two days. Floor recently been concreted over, why? Of course so I couldn't deduce anything."**

**He threw himself onto the floor in exasperation, Squish sat down next to him and laid her head on his arm. Surprisingly he didn't move her away but instead put his arm around her shoulders.**

**She looked up at his face, "It fucks you up doesn't it? Being blind?" He nodded distractedly, "I'm not used to not knowing everything… It's disconcerting"**

**She nodded, "Sherlock. Will you do something for me?" He looked down at her puzzled,**

"**Anything"**

"**Tell me we'll be ok. Please tell me it'll be allright." He pulled her into his chest.**

"**We're going to be fine you little idiot." He looked down at her, "I promise we're going to be all right and I'm never wrong." She nodded and he could feel her falling asleep on his chest. **

"**It'll be allright" he whispered. It had to be. **


	16. Chapter 16

**By the time Squish stirred Sherlock estimated that it was now about ten PM. Roughly eleven hours after their disappearance John would have called the police to report their disappearance, then Mycroft. He berated himself for knowing that Mycroft would be helping John to find them ease his worry a little. A few hours ago two bottles of water had been pushed through the flap in the door. He reached over and passed one of the other bottles to Squish.**

"**We should probably ration this" she said as she took a sip. **

"**Probably" he agreed, as he upended the bottle and drank it down in three long gulps. **

"**Sherlock!" Squish said exasperatedly, "What is the point of agreeing with me if you just ignore your own advice" Sherlock looked like he was about argue some more but then the door began to open.**

**Squish went and stood defiantly by his side as Moriarty flanked by Seb on one side and a hulking man who was carrying a silver tray in one massive hand on the other.**

"**Helloo there" Jim laughed, "I've been such a bad boy haven't I Sherlock? Forgetting to feed my guests like that, very rude." Sherlock said nothing but stared at the consulting criminal, "Come now Sherlock, we both know how to play the game, but maybe you need some persuasion." He nodded at Moran who pulled the girl from Sherlock's side, quicker than a cobra snatching a mouse, Sherlock didn't move, but his eyes flicked to settle on Squish's statue like form in the cold embrace of the killer.**

"**This is how the game is going to work, my dear" Jim said, "You're going to tell me what I'm doing or Sebby here has ten minutes alone with your oh so beloved little girl. And you know the damage that can be done in two minutes let alone ten" Sebastian smiled and stroked the side of the girls neck. "Clocks ticking Sherlock, tick tock, tick tock" **

**Sherlock's eyes flicked to the covered dish then to her face the back again. **

"**Whatever's under that tray is going to be something to try and mess with our heads. Therefore something we want but can't have, so not food. You say you want to burn me, so most likely something aimed at me, in which case why have Squish here. You say she's a player in the game so you will be using her. So most likely drugs for me and some kind of choice for her."**

**Jim laughed coldly, "Oh well done Sherly. Very well done." When he saw Sherlock's face, he sighed and nodded at Moran who let Squish put from his arms, "Though not completely right, the choice is for you both to decide. But on with the game." He pulled the cover off the tray. Lying on it was a syringe filled with a brown liquid. Sherlock met Moriarty's eyes**

"**And if we don't?" he asked**

"**Then a certain ex-army Doctor will be getting another bullet wound, and its time not in his shoulder."**

**Squish spoke up now, "So your game is that one of us takes Heroin or you shoot our best friend?"**

"**Got in one. Now I'm a nice man so you can have half an hour to make the choice or Johnny boy gets a nice to new scar to impress the ladies with" **

**He turned and went to the door, closely followed by Sebastian who turned and looked back at the scene, "Be seeing you cutie pie" he laughed and left. **

**Squish looked down at the tray and the gleaming needle. She cleared her throat and picked up the syringe.**

"**I'll do it." She said quietly, "You've been cold turkey for a year, if you take it now then you'll have fevers, muscle spasms and god knows what else. It makes sense, I'll just get high." She looked up at Sherlock who still stood motionless. She sighed and pulled out the plunger of the syringe. Just as she lined it up with the crook of her elbow, the syringe was pulled from her fingertips. She looked up just as the needle plunged into Sherlock's elbow. She grabbed him as he fell backwards and gently lowered him to the floor.**

"**You stupid, stupid man!" she shouted as she knelt by him, "We had worked out, it would have been fine." **

**He breathed in and out slowly, "I don't want you to end up like me Squish. You can be so much better than me."**

**She looked terrified and angry, "You're the best man I know Sherlock Holmes, and I can't have you ever on drugs again if they make you tell me the truth you arrogant sod." She kissed his cheek and then leapt back in shock as he began to spasm, his lanky body jumping and his eyes rolling. **

"**Sherlock!" She cried, "I'm not John, I don't know what to do, what can I do?" The spasm stopped and his breathing slowed down. She pulled his head onto her lap and checked his pulse, it was erratic and his dark hair was matted with sweat. She checked to see that he hadn't swallowed his tongue and then resorted to checking his pulse. She had done a basic first aid course and tried to remember what it had said about spasms. Lay them flat, hold them down so they don't hurt themselves, make sure they didn't swallow their tongue and get them to hospital. Well she wasn't going to be able to the last one. **

**She was checking his pulse for what felt like the one thousandth time, when a disembodied voice came from somewhere in the room.**

"**Is little daughter looking after her daddy?" Jim's voice was condescending and sarcastic**

"**What do you want Jim?" she didn't look up from Sherlock's face.**

"**I was just wondering how it felt to know that you're the reason that your father is lying in an almost coma."**

"**You're the reason not me." Her voice was quiet but there was a shake in it that Moriarty pounced on.**

"**I'm not the one who gave to him, I gave it to you. You could have taken it and you would have been fine. Hell you probably would have enjoyed it. But instead all that work. All the months that he fought it off, when he didn't shoot up, when he tried so hard for you, all gone, and that is all your fault darling." **

**She ignored him and focused instead on Sherlock's breathing.**

"**Don't worry" came Jim's voice again, "he won't blame you, but you and I will know won't we? That you are sooo happy that he took it. And that it's all…your…fault."**

**Squish didn't turn but she swallowed hard to try and dislodge the lump in her throat. **

"**Be ok." She pleaded, "Please. Just be ok" **

**Six hours later Sherlock opened his eyes. He remembered very little only having gaining consciousness a few times. He remembered that the few times that he had, Squish had been above him murmuring encouragement. Every time he had fitted and his muscles had moved without his permission, she had been there holding him down so he didn't hurt himself. Now he couldn't see her at all**

**He pushed himself into a seated position grunting with the effort, he looked around him and saw her. She had pushed herself into a corner and her head was in her hands. She looked up at him and gulped a little. Silver snail trails trickled down her cheeks and her eyes were red.**

"**You stopped fitting about an hour ago so I thought it was safe to leave you alone for a bit" her voice was dull and quiet.**

**Sherlock raised himself to his feet and slowly walked over to her, and slid down the wall to sit beside her. **

"**It's not your fault." He said, "Its just the game Squish, just the game" **


	17. Chapter 17

**They didn't have to wait for long this time. Within 3 hours Moriarty was back again. This time only Moran was with him. He looked delightedly at the pair of them. At Sherlock's matted hair and Squish's red eyes.**

"**Oh darling!" he cried, "why are you so sad? Because of the things I said? You must learn not to take things so personally you know" He pouted when neither of them replied to him and then his eyes widened, "How did you like my present Sherlock?"**

"**Very nice Jim" the taller man replied as he got to his feet, "you really didn't have to get the good stuff for me you know." **

"**Only the best for you honey" Jim smiled, he took a step closer to Sherlock so that his fingers curled towards his chest, "Only ever the best for you" he repeated as he reached upwards and stroked Sherlock's face.**

"**When are you going to learn that your sweet little pathologist isn't for you and come to daddy, hmm?" He laughed as felt Sherlock stiffen, "Oh well maybe later hon, now it's time for the next round." Moriarty clapped his hands together in delight. **

"**So the last round was all about her choice, this one is all about yours, ok muffin? Mr Moran?" he called out and the other man stepped forward, "If you would be so kind?" Moran nodded and quickly pulled Squish towards him so fast that Sherlock was powerless to do anything even if Moriarty hadn't pulled him towards his own chest and pinned his arms to his sides. **

**He was surprisingly strong for a small man Sherlock thought. Even when he had his attention solely focused in Squish, he still was making calculations, deductions and part of him hated himself for not being able to focus on the one thing that truly mattered to him. The only thing he cared about right at that moment. The look of sheer panic that was on his daughters face as she was held roughly in the arms of a person who was in the pay of a man who had tortured her. A man who had laughed as she was tortured and at that moment Sherlock Holmes wanted nothing more the to take her away and hold her until she stopped shaking, to make her a cup of tea and to play her the violin until she was asleep and the carry her to bed, just like he had done when she was a small child. He didn't even know if she remembered those times, but he did. And although he kept those memories locked up deep inside of him, he knew they were there and it was these that he sought some comfort in when he was reliably informed that he didn't have a heart. **

**Jim was speaking and Sherlock listened, "Right here's the deal." He said, his eyes lit up with glee and malice, "Seb here is something of a monster. He was kicked out of the army for raping and killing a fifteen year old girl in Vietnam. Since then he has raped, murdered and tortured his way to me. Now me and Sebby here have had such fun, but since my focus is on you, it seems fair that I give him something and he has expressed an interest in your darling little girl here. So… I'm going to give you a choice Sherlock" **

**He met Sherlock's dark eyes with his own eye, blue as chips of ice and twice as cold, "You can either let Seb rape her or… let him play with her for twenty minutes. With you watching" His mouth curved upwards at the shock on Sherlock's face, "I give you my word that he won't sexually do anything with her and he won't kill her if you choose the second option but other than that? She's all his."**

"**How long do I have" Sherlock's voice was as cold as Moriarty's eyes. **

"**Ten minutes to choose Sherlock." Moriarty's voice was as soft as silk, "Or you don't get a choice." The door slammed close with a bang behind them. Squish crossed the floor in a step and barrelled into Sherlock who clasped her to his chest.**

"**It's allright. It's ok" he murmured into her hair, "It's going to be ok"**

**She stared up at him with eyelashes stained with tears. "Don't leave me." She pleaded, "Promise me, that you won't leave" **

**He looked down at her, and his heart felt like it was breaking because he knew that there was only one answer he could give and that meant that he would have to do one of the worst things of his life. "I promise" he said simply.**

**Jim came back into the room with Moran who looked like all his Christmases had come at once.**

"**Made a decision yet Sherlock" he smiled cockily, "what's it going to be, because either way I'm getting my hands on her." **

**Sherlock looked at him disdainfully and then looked at Jim, "Twenty minutes" he said, feeling sick to his stomach as the words left his mouth, "Not a minute more. And I swear." He said turning to Moran, "For everything you do, I'll do it to you but ten times worse."**

"**Now, Now Boys" Jim laughed, "let's not get ahead of ourselves. Now Sherly baby, it's not that I don't trust you but I want Seb to be undisturbed as he works so this gentleman." He gestured to a hulking figure that had entered the room without any of them noticing, "Will be making sure you don't try and stop Sebby from knocking Squish around, ok?" **

**The man stepped forward and calmly stood beside Sherlock who didn't seem to realise or maybe just didn't care.**

"**Great, now on with the show"**

**Squish stepped forward, her face was incredibly pale but she stared down, Moriarty defiantly, "same rules as last time Jim" she said, "Nothing to the face"**

**Jim laughed, "Same rules, hear that Sebby, nothing to the face"**

"**Screw that" the other man growled and he leapt at the girl and hit her hard round the side of the face. In an instant Moriarty launched himself the other man and began to kick and punch him like a man might kick a disobedient dog.**

"**Do... Not… Ever… Ignore… Me" he shouted emphasising each word with a kick to the ribs, then he appeared to gain back his composure, "Now" he said straightening up, "have fun and I'll be back in a while. And Seb" he turned at the door, don't disobey me again or you'll wish I had killed you and remember. I'm watching this and I will know if you do" With that he was gone.**

**Seb turned to the girl who was lying on the floor and looked at the other man and the hatred in Sherlock's eyes could have killed someone. **

**Seb just smiled, "Let the fun begin" he said. **

**5 minutes later Squish was sure she was dying, her whole body felt like it was broken and she was unable to keep herself from crying out as Seb's boot kicked her ribs. Sherlock was being held back by the other man and was depetaly trying to reach her. The big man didn't say a word just held Sherlock back, as Moran kicked her again. He went and opened the door and shouted at someone for about twenty three seconds. **

**Those few seconds were enough for her to look up and smile at Sherlock before Seb was back again, this time he was holding something in his hand. He didn't say anything just upended a mug of boiling water onto her stomach. She screamed, her back arching as pain coursed through her like a bullet train. She didn't have anytime to even think about recovering before he was kicking her again. **

**She could feel her consciousness flickering like a television with bad signal, and oh god she didn't want to die. She wanted to see John again, and Molly and even Mycroft. Hell she'd settle for Donavon at this point. And Alex. She didn't want to die without seeing him again. Not without kissing him and feeling his arms around her. She couldn't die. She refused to. She refused because Sherlock needed her and she needed him and she needed him to know that she didn't balme him and it would be ok. **

**She felt something different, a new pain and realised that there was blood trickling down her shoulder and a dull throbbing was coursing through her back and she realised that Moran had once again moved on. That the dull throbbing was where he had hit her with his belt and the blood was where he had cut her shoulder. **

**He was adding more cuts now though they weren't cuts not really. More like scratches. Thin and long, which made it so much worse when they were hit by the belt or kicked by a boot. It felt like thousands of snakes where biting her and they hurt so much and she could feel the bones in her ribs cracking and she wanted it stop so very much. **

**Then without warning. It did.**

**She thought she could feel someone lifting her up and holding her. Someone was murmuring into her hair, "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry", and there was someone else there too. Someone who was laughing and saying…**

"**I told you I'd burn the heart out of you Sherlock, I warned you and you carry your heart around with you so obviously and that makes the temptation so very sweet." **

**She was so tired and wanted to sleep so much, but from somewhere there was still a little bit of strength left, a little spark of defiance made her raise her head and say, "Not burnt out yet Jim, not even close" before she couldn't do anymore and her conscious mind flickered and she fell into unconsciousness. **


	18. Chapter 18

**Moriarty walked into the room and after taking one look the the girl who lay motionless in Sherlock's arms walked back out again, before returning with a man in a white coat who took one look at the prone body and whispered something in the smaller man's ear. Jim nodded and the Doctor left the room. In the time it took for him to return with a green bag with a white cross on it, Sherlock had placed her on his coat which had been laid on the floor. He had checked her pulse half a dozen times, and was now pacing the floor in front of her, partly with nerves and partly to keep Moriarty from taking a step closer. When the doctor reentered the room, his head whipped around and her ripped the first aid kit from the Doctor's hands. Jim laughed**

"**You can go now" he dismissed the Doctor, "Sherlock can take care of her, can't you Sherlock?" **

**The tall man didn't even look up just unzipped the bag and took out the bandages and the antiseptic. As he began to apply the cream to one of the worst cuts she moaned, and her eyelids began to flutter.**

"**Oh looks like Sleeping Beauty's waking up" Moriarty giggled. Sherlock hooked an arm around her head and helped her to be in a kind of sitting position, he grabbed one of the bottles of water and helped her to swallow some of the clear liquid.**

"**This is going to hurt" he said to her calmly as he reached for the cream. He applied it to one of the cuts as gently as he could his long fingers gently caressing the cuts like a dancers, but a small groan still escaped from her clenched teeth. He stopped immediatley stopped and stroked her hair, "You're ok love. You're ok." She clung to him like a drowning man clings to jetsam. He pulled her to him and held her until she wasn't shaking so much, then held her some more.**

**The silence was broken with a ringtone. "ah, ah stayin alive, stayin alive", Jim amswered the call.**

"**Talk to me. What do you mean the shipment's late? I told you before Green, fix it or your little girl's going to be getting a visit from Mr Moran." He hung up and looked at the scene before smiling at them. "I gotta run guys, but don't you worry I'll be back soon" he turned at the door, "and Sherlock? I have something so special planned for you." **

**As soon as he had left the room Squish sagged a littleand Sherlock felt her muscles relax as she callopsed into him. He lifted up the cream once more and she nodded grimly. He applied as carefully as he could, though she gritted her teeth at times and was unable to prevent a whimper escapig when he put the cream on her stomach burn. Eventually though he had bandaged each of the various injuries, the most horrific of which was on her left and her right shoulders. Sebastian had carved SM on the right and JM on the left. She would be scarred forever and that thought haunted Sherlock. She would carry the scars of this encounter and he worried about how she would be mentally.**

' **Molly where are you', he thought silently, he was desperetley worried about both her and John. Moriarty obviously cared if Squish dies otherwise he wouldn't have brought a doctor in, but that was because he didn't want to lose a player rather then any genuine concern. He wanted and needed more levarage. Idle threats would only work for so long. Both of them knew that and Mycoft knew that too. He was so lost in thought and worry that he didn't notice Squish looking up at him.**

**She reached up and touched his shoulder gently.**

"**Hey" she said quietly, "You ok?" **

"**How's your pulse? A little thready" he asked, "are you running a fever?, yes roughly 100, do any of the cuts feel sharp stinging pain? Of course the ones on your shoulders. Do you have a headache or difficulty breathing or…"**

"**Sherlock! Stop ok? Just stop. I'm ok" she took one of his hands, "I'm ok"**

**He looked down at her and his heart sang with the guilt. But he was Sherlock Holmes, master of the cold face, the iceman, second only to his brother, she wouldn't know what he was thinking. Except she knew him better then anyone alive and only she could read his heart like he could read everyone else.**

"**It wasn't your fault." She said flatly, "It's not your fault." **

**Sherlock looked at her and was surprised to feel a tear trickling off his nose. She reached up and caught it on her finger.**

"**Hey none of that." She said gently as she flicked the bead of moisture away, "I'm the one who should be feeling guilty. I should never have let you take those drugs."**

**He sighed and lay down beside. She wincingly laid her head on his chest and he carefully put an arm round her. "I promised you that he would never hurt you again." **

"**Shit happens Sherlock and I would have made the same choice. Its not your fault" He sighed and looked at her. She looked so fragile with the white bandages on her white skin and her face looking tired and sad but with a steely gaze that he knew so well. They stayed that way for a long time, until he thought she had dropped off to sleep. But then she spoke.**

"**Do you remember whe we went to france?" she asked **

**Sherlock nodded. Mycroft had invited them out to his villa in france for a week and John had insisted that they go. It had been a good week. Mycroft had been there to annoy every day, John had forced them to towns and the beach, and he had manged to solve a murder case involving a hiden door, a ladder and a man with two identities. **

**It had been fun, but eventually Sherlock got bored. Mycroft had insisted that whiole she was there Squish ha an hours tuition from a tutor every day. Sherlock has of course stated that it was pointless, partly due to the fact that Squish had been teaching herself out of textbooks for years and was taking various online courses, and also because Mycroft was being annoying. So one day he woke her up ery early and told her to get her swimming stuff and a towel. When she asked where they were going,he had loked at her like she was an idiot.**

"**The beach of course" Sherlock had sounded so incredulous that she hadn't seen that coming, and she remembered laughing out loud at his expression. And that's what they had done. They had gone to the beach. It had felt like they had stolen the whole day, and for that day they had been them. Just Sherlock and Squish, they had played a game that they had invented when she was little. They had to deduce as much as hey could about the same person, whoever got more won. This was their reality. Not normal exactly, but their own version of normal. Nobody knew what had happened that day, it couldn't be taken away from them. **

**Sherlock remembered the day in vicous clarity."Of course I do.I saved it" he said calmly.**

"**That's what I was thinking about." Squish's head lolled on his chest, "You were just my dad that day. Not Sherlock Holmes ,the worlds only consulting detective. Not Sherlock Holmes, arch enemy of Jim Moriarty. Not even Sherlock Holmes, brother to Mycrfot Holmes. Just Sherlock Holmes, my dad."**

**Sherlock kissed the top of her head. He was still angry and guilty and he felt so much love for the girl in his arms. He never showed it, he realised. He had left her to functio on the bare minimum of what every other child from a good home would have. **

"**I should b=never had been allowwed to aopt you" he whispered.**

**Her head snapped sharply, "What? You don't want me?" **

"**No of course not, but I should never had been allowed to. You should have gone to a good family. A normal one. With friends and school and a life. Not danger and torture. Not me." **

**Her hand flew through the air and hit him as hard as she could.**

"**Don't you dare say that Sherlock Holmes! Don't you fucking dare! You're the best father I could have and the only one I want! Torture? I don't give a shit. Held by a sociopathic, violent, sadistic ,psychopath. I don't care. Because I thought as long as you were here, I would feel no matter what happened, it would be ok. But he's rocking everything 's rocking it to the core. I need you. I need you to be my dad. Please just this once, let me have that day again?"**

**Sherlock looked at her. "Squish. No matter what happens I am always your dad. And I swear to you, I'm not going anywhere." **

**She clung to him. He held her in his arms, carefully so as not to hurt her. He held her until she was asleep and even then he kept helding her. Right up to the point when he realised that the cuts on her back were staining his shirt scarlet. **


	19. Chapter 19

**Sherlock leapt up and turned her over. Squish muttered something and groaned, he saw that the back of her shirt was almost black with blood. He tore his own shirt off and pulling hers off, pressed it against the bleeding holes. He realised that the belt Moran had used, had torn the stitches that had held the parallel cuts from her previous encounter with Jim and now both the new cuts and the old had begun to bleed. He went to the door and tried to open it, it was of course locked and a minute later one of the burly men came in quickly followed by the other one who was about a head shorter.**

"**You not go out" he said in a thick Ukrainian accent. Sherlock took one look at him then at the other man, than smiled sardonically. **

"**Get your boss." He replied coldly, "Get him or I'll tell him what you were doing on the table outside." The big man looked like he was going to punch Sherlock, but the smaller man put a hand on his arm and looked at Sherlock fearfully.**

"**I will get him" he said, "She in a bad way yes?" he waved a hand in the general direction of Squish. Sherlock nodded. "Then I will get him quickly. But you not say anything about…" he blushed, a fierce red. **

"**No" Sherlock said. The man nodded and hurried out. The two men remaining waited in silence for around a minute before he came back with Moriarty following him. He dismissed the two security men and stood there watching Sherlock. **

**Sherlock stood up and said, "I need warm water, antiseptic, a sterilised suturing kit, and towels." He then just turned back to his daughter and resumed putting pressure on her back. Moriarty didn't like that. **

**He flew at Sherlock and slammed him against the wall. His hands pulled Sherlock's hair and forced his chin upwards. **

"**I am not your fucking bus boy sweetie. I am in charge here not you, and don't think that just because your little girl's slowly bleeding to death, that the game stops. We are still playing the game."**

**Sherlock gazed at Moriarty unblinkingly. His eyes where darting from point to point on the smaller mans' face, then he sighed.**

"**What do I have to do for you to give me those supplies?" he asked calmly, "What do you want me to do?"**

**Jim's eyes coloured with lust and longing. "Finally you start to ask the right questions. This is the next round Sherlock, and this time you aren't playing for you. You're playing for her." He jerked his head at the prone body lying on the floor. "So you better work fast, little virgin"**

**Sherlock looked Jim right in the eyes and said very clearly, "Come now Jim, haven't you seen that I need a new nickname?" And before the other man had a chance to process the information Sherlock had pressed his lips against Jim's.**

**Sherlock knew that he had to keep the other man off balance. He knew that even though his entrails squirmed with the thought of Molly, even though he hated himself for doing it, he had to kiss his arch enemy like his life depended on it. He had to do it because it wasn't his life, it was Squish's and that was worth everything to him. **

**He battled for dominance with Moriarty. The kiss wasn't gentle and passionate like it was with Molly, this was a war. He forced his tongue into Jim's mouth and his tongue was joined in battle by Jim's. Their tongues clashed and fought, both men fought for control like two male stags fighting for a mate. Sherlock could feel the fight slipping away from him as Jim gained the upper hand. The strangest thing was that both men kept their eyes open throughout the kiss. They stared into each other's eyes and Sherlock saw the void in Jim's eyes. Saw the lust and the pain and the longing. But the thing that really scared him? The thing that terrified him? He could see the same things reflected from his own eyes. **

**Sherlock tore away from Moriarty and stood there breathing heavily. The lithe man stepped after him and ran his fingers down Sherlock's still bare chest.**

"**I promise you honey, sooner or later you are going to get bored with Little Miss Molly and I am going to be waiting right here. We need each other"**

**Sherlock shook his head, "You aren't what I want Jim. You're certainly not what I need either. We would burn each other out Jim."**

**Jim laughed and threw his arms out wide, like he wanted to hug the world, "Come on Sherlock" he said, "Ordinary people are dull. Their fun to keep as pets sure, but bursting into flames with me? You won't ever been bored again."**

**The tall man looked at him straight in the eye, "I won't ever want to be with you Jim. You're a psychotic sociopath who wants to burn my heart out."**

"**And you're an addict. It's your nature, you're addicted to the danger of being with me sweetie, addicted to the idea that you could lose at any moment. Addicted to the idea of losing the scraps of humanity you've found. And that's why you'll come to me, that's why I'll win" **

**The two men stood facing one another, and Sherlock looked away first his gaze resting on Squish's body, Moriarty followed his eye line and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll give you all the stuff you want for her. Hell I'll even get her a blood transfusion if you want." He leant forward and whispered in Sherlock's ear his breath hot and flickering like the tongue of a snake, "But it'll cost you".**

"**We'll be fine thanks." Moriarty shrugged and moved towards the door. **

"**You know I'm right Sherlock and you know how much you want me too. By the way I like you shirtless" With that final remark he was gone. A few minutes later a man wheeled a trolley in. **

"**The doctor will be here in a minute." He said, "The boss told me to tell you that he found the best one he could" Sherlock gave no reply but snorted. The man shook his head and left the room. **

**Sherlock dipped the towel in the warm water and started to clean off the blood. The girl arched her back and hissed with pain. For the most part he could see the red moths cut into her skin and he started to rub the antiseptic cream into them. The door opened again but he didn't look up from his task. Then hands took the cream from him and started to rub it into them gently. Sherlock knew the hands. Had seen them hold a gun; pull back the clothes on dead men. And… make tea.**

"**John?"**


	20. Chapter 20

**John carefully applied the antiseptic to the gaping cuts in the girls back then held out a hand for the suture. Sherlock passed it to him without a word.**

"**Strange when you do it" John commented as he passed the needle down the length of the first cut. **

"**Hmm"" Sherlock asked**

"**Pass over things when I ask"**

"**Well you are the doctor John, you'll do it neater" John grimaced as he reached the end of the first injury. **

"**He really laid into her didn't he?" he said as he began on the next on the next one. Sherlock nodded and didn't take his eyes off of her. **

"**How are you John" Squish asked through gritted teeth, "How's Molly and Mrs Hudson?" **

"**Extremely worried about you, now this is going to really hurt ok!" She nodded and John began on the final slash. It was going to hurt more because it was jagged and to sew it up completely John would have to do it very slowly so as to harm the other stitches. Squish could feel it every single time that the needle pushed through her skin and balled her hands up into a fist. Eventually John was finished. **

**Sherlock helped her to sit up and gave her some water. She looked down at herself, her front was bloodstained and she was only in her bra which was luckily black and therefore still usable. She laughed and looked at Sherlock who was still shirtless.**

"**Well I'm glad that Donavon isn't here" she said**

"**What?" Sherlock sounded incredulous.**

"**She already thinks that there's something weird about us. If she saw the pair of us topless, I think we would both be in handcuffs." He looked at her weirdly for a moment, and then laughed. John looked at them and then sat down next to her.**

"**I have been very worried about you" he said, "and I think that your consultant will kill you for breaking the stitches"**

**Squish looked at him very seriously, "I think he'll be more worried about the fact that I've been kidnapped twice within two months by the same person."**

"**There is that" John agreed. He noticed that she was very pale, "Go to sleep ok, you need to rest and the sooner you're back to normal, the sooner we can get out of here."**

**John saw her look at him oddly for a minute then nodded. She curled up on Sherlock's coat and closed her eyes, within minutes she was in a deep sleep. **

**Sherlock looked at her for a minute then stood up and began pacing. John watched him as he walked back and forth between the four walls of the room.**

"**And you" he asked, "How are you Sherlock?" The taller man turned to him with something akin to anger in his eyes. **

"**Why are you here John? I was hoping you would be able to get some form of help to us or at least prevent yourself from also being taken. But it would appear that I overestimated you. Did you blog about where you were or did you just walk into the waiting car?" **

**John looked at Sherlock with shock on his face, "Sherlock I've been worried sick about you and Squish. Lestrade has been searching up and down the country for you and Mycroft. Well he's been the least composed I have ever seen him." **

**Sherlock exploded, "Least composed? I have watched my child John, my only child be beaten into unconsciousness by a hyper aggressive maniac. I have been forced to be unfaithful to the woman I love, yes love John, in order to get medical supplies so that she doesn't bleed to death and you expect me to be grateful that my brother has lost his composure?" **

**John looked at the taller man with something like pity. The taller man's head was bowed and he knelt down by Squish's side, "I let her down." **

**John touched his shoulder, "He made you watch?" **

**Sherlock looked at him his brown eyes were darker than usual, "He made me choose John. I had to choose whether I let my daughter be raped or whether let her be Moran's plaything for twenty minutes. And then he made we watch." **

"**I'm sorry Sherlock" John said, "I can't imagine what that was like" **

**Sherlock didn't say anything, "She's all I've got John" he whispered, John nodded.**

"**She's going to be ok Sherlock" John said, "There's no reason why she won't make a full recovery"**

**Sherlock didn't say anything and then he sighed and leaned against the wall. Whne he next spoke his voice sounded weary and sad. **

"**When I was a kid my father used to take me and Mycroft out shooting. Once Mycroft got shot in the foot, it was an accident but my father didn't really care, Mycroft was still locked in his room for two days. One day he took us out. There was this clearing in the middle of the woods on the estate. He took me and Mycroft there and he said he has something to tell us. He said we had to learn not to care. That caring was a weakness. So he sat down on the ground put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger."**

**John looked up at Sherlock, he suspected that his mouth was hanging open and John made an effort to close it. **

"**Oh don't looked so surprised" Sherlock said, "You've always wanted to know whether or not I had a traumatic childhood so shut up and listen ok?" John nodded**

"**Thank you Mycroft accepted it all of course, assumed the role of 'little man of the house', and Mother was of course devastated, played up the deserted widow angle before assuming all of my father's estates and money. You'd like me to tell you tats why I'm like I am wouldn't you John? That Sherlock's cold and calculating as a defence mechanism due to childhood trauma. Well sorry to disappoint you John, but that's wrong, this is who I am. So much so that when I left university I adopted a child because I was bored."**

**John tried to say something here, "Sherlock…"**

"**John I said shut up. He was right you see, Jim. She was an experiment; I wanted to know whether it was possible to raise someone to be like me. Whether there was something wrong with me specifically or whether it was something that I had learnt along the way."**

**He reached out and stroked Squish's hair gently.**

"**I never expected that I would actually care about her. I thought she'd just be another cadaver, not a person. I didn't think that I would change as a result of her John"**

**John looked at the pair of them. The sleeping girl and the tall man who looked at her with such concern. **

"**What happened Sherlock?" he asked, "What changed?"**

**Sherlock looked him with look that said, 'isn't it obvious?', "I began to care John. Suddenly there was someone who needed me to look after her and that made me… feel" **

**John still felt baffled, Sherlock sighed. **

"**Until her John, I didn't care how other people felt. I didn't care how I affected people. Then she came along. And I care so much about if she's scared, happy, or sad. And right now I see her scared and hurt, and every time I see Moriarty or Moran I want to kill them." John looked at him and Sherlock sighed. "But that's not going to get her out is it?" **


	21. Chapter 21

**John looked at Sherlock very seriously. He had seen how Sherlock had changed, even in the past few months. He had gone from being ice cold and using whatever means necessary to get what he wanted, to (as far as John could tell) being in love. He didn't know what had caused the change but Sherlock was on the way to becoming a better man because of it. A good man. **

**Squish stirred in her sleep and Sherlock was immediately at her side. She opened her eyes and looked at him, than John saw an expression of puzzlement cross her face.**

"**What do you mean, you need a new nickname" She asked Sherlock who to John's surprise looked positively shifty. **

"**What are you talking about" John asked, as he too came to sit next to her, "Who needs a new nickname?" **

"**Sherlock does apparently." She said as a she continued to stare at him, "He told Moriarty he couldn't call him 'the virgin' anymore. Which would lead me to conclude that…"**

"**All right, all right." Sherlock said, "Molly and I may have… at some point… had relations of…"**

"**Oh My God. You had sex with Molly didn't you" Squish practically screamed, wincing as she breathed in a bit deeper, then a moment later, "ugh images, images!" she mimed clawing at her eye balls**

"**Ok. Ok" John said, "let's not talk about those aspects of Sherlock's life, Squish. Oh!"**

"**What is it John." Sherlock was immediately by his side, "Have you taken anything. Has Jim given you anything?" He grabbed John by the shoulders in order to try and get a better look at him, "your pupils are dilated and your pulse is…" Long fingers curved around John's wrist though he pulled it away from them quickly.**

"**No Sherlock. It's nothing like that. It's just" he sighed bemusedly, "The images are in my head too" he looked at Squish and as they caught each other eyes the both burst out laughing. Sherlock looked utterly unamused. **

"**We are being held captive by a psychomanic and you too are focusing on my sex life? This does not seem very logical to me."**

"**No" said Squish calmly, "we are focusing on, up until this moment your non-existent sex life. This therefore is the most interesting thing that has happened to us in the entire two days that I've been here. Apart from you know the whole torture thing, and that was more painful than particularly helpful or interesting." She looked over at John again and they both immediately started to giggle. **

"**Oh my god" she gasped, "I've won the bet with Donavon" **

**Sherlock's head snapped round, "What bet with Donavon" he asked menacingly.**

"**She reckoned that I would have sex before you did and I said that she obviously hadn't seen the amount of fan mail you get."**

"**What fan mail" Sherlock asked, "I don't get fan mail?" John looked utterly exasperated.**

"**Sherlock the postman practically breaks his back carrying it up the stairs." Sherlock still looked bewildered.**

"**I answer it for you?" Squish said, "Every week? On a Thursday, any bells?" Sherlock shook his head, "Have you deleted it?" she asked "You have, haven't you? Well that's just not fair; I reply to all of it and some of it's not meant for my eyes. Really some of them can be described as downright stalkers. I mean you get locks of hair, toenail clippings for some reason, oh and that thumb once." She gazed at Sherlock disbelievingly, "come on you must remember the thumb? IT'S A THUMB! How can you forget when a person sends you A THUMB?" **

**Sherlock looked bemused, "It's unimportant"**

"**UNIMPORTANT? IT'S A THUMB!"**

"**So? We have a zip lock bag of them in the fridge if I wanted a thumb" She reached up and massaged her temples.**

"**I'm not sure that that's the point Sherlock" she said , "But the point is that you have a lot of woman all saying that their there if you want to. Some men too, but that may just be Brian and Mickey."**

"**Oh I sent a few too" came a voice. The three of them looked at the door and obviously Jim stood there.**

"**Well?" he looked at them, "Oh come on you must remember. '**_**Dear Sherlock, I want to spend all my time with you. We can do the most delicious things together xoxo'**_** Though the response was very dull, If I didn't know any better I'd say that you didn't even read my letter." **

**Sherlock had, subconsciously it appeared, to have positioned himself between Jim and Squish. His face was troubled and his dark eyes flicked to Jim, who he preceded to watch warily like a dog that'd been kicked once too many times. It wasn't lost on Jim, who licked his lips slowly. **

"**Anywayyy, I'm moving you out of this room. It's got a little bit old hasn't it? With all the blood on the floor and everything. Besides I really need this one, got a man who failed to deliver a shipment to me on time and I've promised Seb he can use this one." Jim looked past Sherlock at Squish, "He says it reminds him of your time together. Isn't that sweet!" **

**Where are you taking us Moriarty?" asked John, as he helped Squish to her feet, "Will there be the things we need to look after her?"**

"**But of course Doctor Watson. I'm not a monster and I need her alive. You on the other hand are not so indispensable. Sherlock has plenty of other people that he cares about. Mrs Hudson perhaps or Lestrade? No- maybe Little Miss Molly then." Sherlock's head whipped towards him, Jim laughed terribly, **

"**Oh he is so cute isn't he? So eager to protect his little pets. And he wonders why I know how to hurt him. Ready?" he asked turning back to where Squish was being supported by John, "then off we go".**

**He led them down a white corridor with brilliant white light, which dazzled Squish as they left the room. Her back and ribs hurt terribly and she was sure that if John had not been supporting her she would have fallen down. But with his help she was able to walk. Sherlock was striding ahead his coat, which was speckled with her blood wrapped around his still shirtless chest. **

**After what felt like hours of twisting corridors and unmarked doors, they stopped outside an equally unimportant door. **

"**Home sweet, Home" Jim chuckled as he opened the door. **


	22. Chapter 22

**As they walked inside Squish gasped. The room was actually a set of rooms rather than another one set up like their previous abode. What made her look around in amazement was that it looked exactly like Baker Street. The wallpaper was identical, as were the skulls that were of course dotted around Baker Street. There was even a violin lying on top of the bookcase with a bow. Sherlock saw Squish's gaze alight on it and nodded slightly.**

**It was a Stradivarius; she could remember the day that Sherlock had bought his own. It had been on a stall in Shoreditch, he had picked it up and played a few notes, an Islamic gentleman had asked if he was interested in buying the instrument and Sherlock had replied in the affirmative. They had actually been on a case at the time; some guy had sent ears to his girlfriend's sister, who Sherlock had quickly determined had done her best to split them up after being rejected by the boyfriend. Squish could remember the violin only being £55 and Sherlock had laughed at the price; he had told her that this type of violin was usually worth thousands of pounds. It had been a good day, Sherlock had given the offender, in a rare moment of empathy, the number of the best defence lawyer in town, and that had been enough of a reason for celebration. **

**Moriarty stood in the doorway observing amusedly at their bewilderment. He giggled amused at their expressions of disbelief.**

"**Not to put a damper on things darlings, but I've got a very bad captain to attend too, so I'll be seeing you all later. Ciao!" He left the room, closing the door gently behind him. The lock clicked with a noise that sounded like the crashing of thunder in the silence. **

**Squish continued to look around from where she stood in the flat. Of course this apartment wasn't an exact replica. They were still on the ground floor and that meant that there weren't any windows. The kitchen wasn't in the right place and it was much too tidy to be their home. There were none of Sherlock's files spilling their contents onto the floor and the lack of mess made her feel on edge.**

**John carefully helped her to the sofa where she sat down gingerly. It was unsettling to be in a parody of her home, weird and frightening. She looked over at the bullet holes in the wall. She of course had the exact positioning of the originals committed to memory, and she could tell that they were correct down to the last millimetre. **

"**This is really creepy" she said to no one in particular, "And I mean really creepy. Look the bison's the same shade of black and wearing the same brand of headphones. And he cushions are how left them"**

"**Jim's very thorough" Sherlock said distractedly as he peered through a microscope that was set up in the kitchen, "very thorough indeed. This is the exact experiment that I left at home; in fact it's the same experiment but three days ahead of where I left it."**

"**We've been gone three days." John sounded worried, "You don't think that this s actually are stuff do you?"**

"**Don't be stupid John" said Sherlock, "This microscope is brand new, but it's been chemically fabricated to look like its mine." Squish shook her head unsure f what he said.**

"**I don't know Sherlock. I think John may have a point. Some of our stuff is difficult to come by. I mean the Cluedo board has been nailed above the fireplace, and you can see the marks where you threw the pieces against the board. I mean look there's the puncture mark where you stuck the collectible Professor Plum's head through the board."**

**Sherlock strode up to the board and examined it. He looked at it closely and pulled out the knife so that he could take the board down. After about a minute of looking, he shook his head decidedly.**

"**No, this isn't our board" **

"**How can you possibly tell that?" asked John, "we played that game for ten minutes before you decided that the only possible solution was the victim committing his own murder. Then you threw the pieces across the room and stuck Professor Plum's head through the ballroom." **

"**Exactly. Professor Plum's head was stuck through our board. This hole was obviously made by Miss Scarlet not Professor Plum. And the victim did do it"**

**Squish sighed, "For the final time. The victim did not do it, that argument is flawed by the rules of the game and we shall not speak of it again. Also, I was Miss Scarlet so how do you know what sort of puncture hole she made?" **

**Sherlock spun around. "It's obvious. Miss Scarlet's piece is long and thin but with a flared base, this puncture mark has got a large hole where the piece entered, but by the amount of force that was used, the entry pint was relatively small. There are minuscule dots of red paint from the dress on the piece. Ergo cannot be Professor Plum because that piece is purple and yellow not red."**

"**Brilliant" said John, "amazing, fantastic…"**

"**And that takes us back to square one" Squish finished for him, "sorry to interrupt John and you can continue your run through of all of the adjectives in the English language in a minute, but what are we going to do exactly?"**

**Sherlock looked at her and then at John, the back to her and shrugged,**

"**What's your suggestion?" he asked, "the doors locked and as there are no windows I don't see what we can actually do that's in any way productive"**

"**And you aren't going anywhere for at least another day" John said, as he sat down heavily on the sofa, "You need to actually recover a little bit before we go gallivanting off again." Squish frowned.**

"**I don't really think you can call escaping a criminal mastermind, 'gallivanting'. Gallivanting means going in pursuit of something fun or pleasurable, I'm not sure that an escape entirely counts!"**

**John looked funnily at her then got to his feet sighing heavily.**

"**I'm going to see if there's any tea, and then I'm going to try and sleep. And Sherlock…" he turned to face him, "Put a shirt or something on please. Even if it's only a sheet, I'm getting sick of looking at your chest." **

**With that he disappeared into the kitchen. Squish counted two minutes and watched with satisfaction as John left the kitchen and walked to where his bedroom would be if this was their actual flat. She gave a snort of amusement and the mundaneness of a thoroughly abnormal situation. Sherlock sat down next to her and closed his eyes. **

"**I need five minutes" he said, "just five minutes to sleep."**

"**You voluntarily sleep? You'll be eating next"**

**But Sherlock didn't say anything because he was already asleep.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Sherlock woke with a start. He felt slightly slow and unsteady. He shook himself to try and become more alert. He scowled, this was why he didn't sleep, it made you feel so woozy. Sherlock was relieved to see Squish sitting cross legged on the armchair opposite him, but was alarmed when he couldn't see John anywhere. **

**"Where's John" he asked her, as he reached up and stretched his aching muscles.**

**"Bathroom" she replied, "He's been in there for hours. And I do mean that literally, he came in about two hours ago saying that he couldn't sleep with stuff that wasn't his but looked like his around him."**

**Sherlock frowned, "Why is that an issue?" he asked surprised.**

**The girl shrugged, "He said it was like wearing someone else's underwear."**

**Again Sherlock looked puzzled.**

**"Invasive and faintly voyeuristic"**

**Sherlock snorted and stood up. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and was visibly shocked to see his appearance.**

**He rounded on Squish, "How could you not tell me that my hair was so rumpled?"**

**"I'm so sorry" she said sarcastically, "next time I'll tell Moran 'no sorry, I'm afraid you can't torture me today, I need to focus on the fact that Sherlock might need me to comb his hair for him.' I've had things on my mind, other than your bloody hair!" **

**Sherlock didn't appear to be listening. Instead he was moving towards the door where in their actual flat his bedroom would behind. He opened the door and stood stock still. **

**"Sherlock?" He could hear the question and the worry in her voice," are you ok?"**

**Wordlessly he stepped aside and heard her heave herself to her feet, heard the slight grunt of pain as she straightened up, and then heard the gasp of surprise as she saw inside the room. **

**"Molly?" **

**The woman was passed out, lying spread-eagled on the bed. Squish was relieved to see that Molly still had all her clothes on; she couldn't deal with that sort of a game. Squish realised that Sherlock was still standing there unmoving.**

**"I'll… I'll go get John then" she said awkwardly, Sherlock didn't register that she had said anything just stood there looking at her. She turned and sprinted to the bathroom as fast as her stitches would allow.**

**The door was thrown open and John jerked awake. After spending half an hour trying out different positions he had decided that he was most comfortable lying with his head on the side of the bath. Unfortunately at some point he had slipped onto the floor and was now drooling into the bath mat, with a bemused looking girl looking down at him. He sat up and wiped his mouth **

**"What's going on?" he asked.**

**"I think you're going to have to see for yourself" she replied, "and John?" He looked up at her, "next time you decide to fall asleep in the bathroom, maybe you want to put a towel on the bath so you don't wake up with a red mark on you face? Just a suggestion" **

**John came into Sherlock's room and stood still with his mouth agape at the scene that stood before him. Sherlock had by this point located a shirt and was lying next to Molly on the bed, with Squish sitting cross legged at the foot of the bed. She looked up as John walked in and rolled her eyes.**

**"I'll be honest; at this point I'm expecting Anderson to pop out of the oven."**

**"How did she get here?" John asked as he made his way to the bed and took up a limp wrist to check her pulse.**

**"I gather Jim thought it would be a nice surprise "Sherlock said dryly, "Will she be all right John?" John looked up at him and nodded.**

**"Her pulse was a little slower than I would like but I would guess they gave her a strong sedative if no one came in last night to put her in here?"**

**Squish shook her head, "I didn't really sleep, I would have known if anyone came in, plus the sheets say she's been here for about six hours, we've only been here for five."**

**Sherlock turned to John, "When was the last time you saw her?" His voice didn't make it a question but a statement. **

**"The day Moriarty took me" John replied, "She's being staying at Baker Street, Lestrade said that that's where he would go first with any news and she wanted to hear it as soon as she could."**

**Sherlock frowned slightly at this and John sighed, "She was very worried about you Sherlock, she didn't know what would happen with you…and Jim"**

**Sherlock raised one eyebrow almost delicately, "What do you mean by that John?" His voice was soft and dark. John sighed again.**

**"She knows you Sherlock. She knows how you feel about him." Sherlock's second eyebrow joined the first, this time Squish spoke.**

**"You do feel something for him, if only your insane addiction to the game that the pair of you play and" she hesitated here "Say what we can about Jim, he knows how to play with you Sherlock. He knows that sometimes you'll do anything for the power. And she knows it too." She said it gently enough but there was deeper meaning to her words that John recognised even if Sherlock didn't. **

**It was a meaning that said: you can be very cruel to the people who love you. We're scared that you disregard us when something better comes along. We aren't sure about how you feel about us but we love you anyway. Because we have no choice in it. **

**Molly stirred and immediately all attention transferred to her. Her eyelids fluttered and then she opened her eyes, she groaned and then threw a hand over her eyes as he adjusted to the light. John helped her into a sitting position and passed her a cup of water that she gulped down. Molly's hair was tangled and frizzed out in a halo of golden brown. She began to retch and Squish quickly thrust a nearby kidney dish to her.**

**Sherlock looked faintly disgusted, "That was a kidney dish used in one of the first heart operations by Dr Dwight Harken in the Second World War" he said quietly.**

**"And you are starting to sound like Mycroft." She replied coldly, "It's not even yours!"**

**Sherlock still looked a little bit put out, she leaned over and hissed into his ear, "SHE, should your priority not a bloody kidney dish that's doesn't even belong to you."**

**Sherlock looked a little surprised and nodded. He reached over and held Molly's hand, at this Squish smiled a little, approving.**

**"Now fellas, will the pair of you get out please? Molly needs a little space I think."**

**As the two men were hustled from the room, Molly swung her legs over the side of the bed and put her hands to her head. Squish wordlessly passed her the water and Molly choked down a few gulps.**

**"What happened?" the girl asked gently, taking the glass and placing it on the table. Molly sighed and pulled her hair over her shoulder and began plaiting it, her hands needing something to do.**

**"After they got John, Greg was really worried. He thought that they might want me for leverage or something. He had this guy come and stay in the flat, Jack. Then yesterday… God was it only yesterday? They came. Three of them. This tall thin guy and two big guys and they… they…" Her eyes filled with tears and her breath was ragged. The girl wrapped an arm around her and hugged her tightly.**

**"It's allright. Shh, shh, its ok." **

**Then Sherlock came in through the door. He strode in, and pulled Molly into his chest. She clutched at him and he rocked her back and forth as though she was a baby. His hand went to the back of her head and held her too him. Squish could hear the desperate breaths that Molly drew and saw Sherlock stroke her hair reassuringly, she carefully got up and took her leave, quietly shutting the door behind her. **


	24. Chapter 24

**John was sitting on the sofa when Squish inched out of Sherlock's room. He watched as she slumped down next to him and gently patted her on the shoulder.**

"**Hey" he said, "you ok?" She looked up at him.**

"**As long as all their clothes stay on while I'm within 10 metres I will be" She smiled dryly, "Yeah I'm fine."**

"**You sure?" he asked, "Isn't it a bit weird. You know, your dad's girlfriend being here?"**

**She let out a bark of laughter, "That's what you're finding weird about this situation John?" He looked at her then smiled wryly.**

"**Well when you put it like that, it sounds ridiculous" **

**She sighed, "It is a bit weird though. He hasn't had a girlfriend before John. He barely ever lets anyone touch him. Barely lets ME in. So to see him like that with her… it's strange."**

**John nodded, "I know, but" He hesitated, "at the risk of sounding like a Sandra Bullock movie, he cares about you more then you'll ever know. He needs you." He smiled at her and gave her shoulder a squeeze.**

**She smiled back at him and got up. "I'm going to get into fresh clothes." She looked down at herself, "and a shower." She walked towards the bathroom that John had recently vacated and turned at the door, **

"**You're a good man John Watson and I have not got a clue why you put up with all our crap." He laughed as she closed the door behind her.**

**When she came out with her hair damp and wearing t-shirt and jeans, John was reading in his armchair. She leant against the doorway and smiled at the normality of the scene. Then jumped out of her skin as the door opened and the two men who had Sherlock had spoken to outside the other room came in. **

**One of them, the smaller one spoke in a thick Ukrainian accent. **

"**We have come to take her to the boss" he said pointing at her so there was no doubt as to whom he meant; John stood up and was shaking his head.**

"**No way, absolutely not"**

**But Squish laid a hand on his arm**

"**It's ok John, I don't think this is going to take long" she glanced at the man and he shook his head.**

"**That's what worries me" John pulled her around so he faced away from the two men, "you can't expect me to let you go alone into the arms of psychopath? Sherlock would never forgive me!" **

"**At this moment we don't have much of a choice." She walked towards the door and offered a smile, "Just tell Sherlock, Dan Brown, Angels and Demons" She exited the room, leaving John feeling very worried. **

**The strange party made its way down the corridor that twisted and turned its way into a straight line. After they had been walking for 5 and a half minutes Squish broke the silence.**

"**So he's your boyfriend then?" she nodded at the tall hulking figure on her right, the smaller man on her left looked around nervously. **

**She laughed not unkindly, "I doubt very much that he doesn't know already" she said gently, "Actually it might be the reason that you got hired in the first place, he likes to play games with us and you two are a good start."**

**The thin man hesitated, then said in an undertone, "I am very sorry, you got hurt, we didn't know that would happen"**

"**Your friend here didn't really do anything about it" an icy layer had slithered into her voice, "he held back someone who could've helped me" The man shrugged apologetically**

"**We don't want any trouble you see; just do what the big boss tells us, but little girls getting hurt? Not what we signed up for, we finish here, we get paid, we go" The girl looked at the man strangely.**

"**What's you name" she asked**

**The man looked puzzled, "Sasha, and he is Sergey" **

"**Where did he find you then Sasha?" she asked, "the hired hands with a conscience?" The man grunted non-committedly.**

"**We work in nightclub, long hours, and bad money. Then Mr Moriarty comes, say he will give us £9000 each for one job. What can we do? We say yes and when we are paid we will have enough for a small house by the sea."**

**She looked very sad at this and shook her head.**

"**Oh the best laid plans of mice and men" she murmured as they took a sharp left. The big man- Sergey, now spoke.**

"**You think we stupid" he asked, his voice surprisingly soft for a man his size. She looked him right in the eye.**

"**I think I've pulled too many of Mr Moriarty's employees out of the Thames to believe you're getting to the little house by the sea." **

**The two men exchanged a look as she continued, "You want my advice? Just go, leave. Take me wherever you've been told me to take me, and then get out of here, don't get paid, just go and maybe you'll live to see the house by the sea."**

**They came to a sudden stop outside another white door marked office. The two men looked at her in astonishment. She hesitated for a second, "Do you have a pen and a bit of paper?" she asked hurriedly. **

**Sergey scrabbled in a pocket and produced a receipt and a leaking biro. She took it and scribbled something on the receipt.**

"**Go to this address and ask for Brian. Tell him that Squish has sent him two of the best bouncers in the business." She thought for a second, "It'll probably help your case if you hold hands as well" She passed the smaller man the paper and the pen. He took it and looked at the address.**

"**Why." He asked, "We haven't helped you"**

"**Do you want too?" she asked, they looked at each other and then both nodded, "Tell my father, Stan Lee, X-men the last stand and Selena Gomez, the Muppets "**

**They both looked puzzled then nodded. She beamed a smile at them and offered a hand.**

"**Good luck" she said with a smile, and as each of the two men shook her hand solemnly, neither of them noticed as she slipped a long thin knife out of Sasha's pocket. They looked at each other again then at her, as she quietly slipped inside the door and it closed with a resounding click behind her. **

**Jim was sitting at an antique desk with shelves all around him and was working at a laptop; Moran was leaning on the desk and jumped up when she came into the room.**

"**Where are those Ukrainian fuckers?" he asked peering into the hall, "I told them to mop up after Green and then come see me" Squish said nothing and looked at him with ice in her eyes. Seb shrugged and pulled a chair out, so that she sat down opposite Moriarty. Moran positioned himself behind the chair, between her and the door. Jim closed the laptop and looked at her over his fingertips.**

"**So honey, how've you been?" he asked nonchalantly, "The good doctor been looking after you?"**

"**What you mean, making sure that I don't bleed to death after your pet breaks my ribs again?" she said acidly, "or do you mean using the medical supplies you blackmailed Sherlock into getting?" **

"**Yep, that pretty much covers it" Jim laughed coldly, "Don't tell me you haven't been enjoying our little game?" **

**She looked at him with a dark calculating gaze, "What's this really about Jim? Because I don't believe that even you would go to this much trouble just to play with Sherlock." **

**Jim looked back at her, his own gaze a mirror image of hers. His lip curled into a cruel smile, "Then tell me what this is **_**really **_**about. Little Holmes" **

**Squish's eyes closed and her mind began to race. A million possibilities ran through her mind like an eagle chasing a rabbit. She could hear Sherlock's voice telling her to observe and remember everything. Every word, every smell, every sight, they all linked together. Then the eagle swept downwards and caught the rabbit in its talons. Hey eyes snapped open. She said one word and from the look on Moriarty's face she knew she was right.**

"**Mycroft" **

**Jims smiled again and motioned for her to continue.**

"**That's why Seb was there at the party wasn't it. Not to threaten us, though I guess that was a bonus, but to see if you could break into to Mycroft's study. It's been a busy time for Mycroft, for once he's been bringing work home and I know that his club was broken into a few weeks ago. And that's why we're really here isn't it?" **

**Jim raised one eyebrow and she pressed on, "Mycroft for all his secrecy is still one man, and like most of us he uses one password for everything. His safe, his phone, even his room at his club. The Diogenes club uses a password known only to the computer and user. The computer is nearly impossible to hack, I know I've tried. You realised that you didn't have a hope in hell of guessing it and you also knew that there isn't any way that Mycroft would give it to you regardless of how you threaten him. So you got the only other person who will know it and then you got the means with which you can threaten him." **

**Jim clapped slowly. "Bravo" he said mockingly, his eyes gleaming with mischief and malice.**

"**I think that we can count that performance the success of Sherlock's experiment, though I wonder what he really achieved with his little enterprise." Now it was Squish's turn to raise an eyebrow,**

"**All he succeeded in doing is creating a useful bit of leverage. Because of you, I'm going to be able to control the British government, and any criminal with half a brain cell is going to realise how easy it is to probe Sherlock's weak spot. It's sad really; he's turned you into a victim for the rest of your life" **

**To Moriarty's surprise and annoyance, Squish appeared to find this little speech funny. A grin split her face and a giggle escaped her.**

"**Is this the part where you laugh manically and reveal the rest of your evil plan as I slowly inch towards the shark infested pool" she asked and continued to laugh even as Moran pulled her head back and hit her across the face. **

"**What can you possibly be finding funny about this situation?" Jim looked astonished as Squish suddenly became serious again and her mouth twisted into a sharp curve. **

"**That you think I'm a victim." She said and suddenly began to move.**

**She stood up briskly and kicked the chair backwards into Moran's kneecaps. As he fell forward slightly she slammed her elbow into his ribcage before bringing it sharply upward into his chin. **

**She heard the bone crunch and felt the floating rib give way beneath her hard elbow. She quickly turned and kicked the chair away from them and bringing her heel up, she slammed it down again into Moran's already weakened kneecap. He went down with a loud cry of pain as his joint slipped from its position and he crumpled on the carpet. **

**Jim watched this with a mixture of shock and anger and kicked the desk out of the way savagely. For a few seconds neither of the two moved, and they weighed each other up like cats in an alleyway. Both knew the fight that followed would be vicious and bloody and each was prepared for it in full. **

**Then Moriarty moved faster than a king cobra on a desert plain and punched the girl in the stomach viciously and then as she was winded, followed it up with a hook kick to the back of her knees, which caused her to fall forward onto the carpet. **

**From her position on the floor, Squish kicked upwards with both feet and was rewarded with a bang on target, blow to the groin. Jim fell on the floor and Squish stood up gracefully, slipped the knife out from its hiding place up her sleeve and placed it just above Jim's Adams apple. **

"**Didn't think you were naïve enough to think I wouldn't kick you there if I had half the chance" she said cheerfully, "Now isn't it amazing how much I remember about the key points in you anatomy, points where I could stick this lovely little knife and you'd die a long and agonising death? You know, Sherlock taught me about stiletto knives when I was 5, I didn't think I would remember all 22 points" **

"**Do it" Jim hissed, "Prove you have the guts to do it. Think about how much safer you'd be. How much safer Little Miss Molly and Johnny Boy would be if I wasn't here. Think about how much safer Sherlock would be. Because I promise if I don't leave here in a body bag, then I will not stop till you are all ash on the wind."**

**Squish's face changed slightly, she didn't lower the knife and she still kept the tip on Jim's throat but something died in her eyes and she said absently, "I guess we'll all be cinders then won't we." And slammed the knife into the wall where it quivered like a leaf in the breeze. **

**After cuffing Jim to the radiator with a pair of Lestrade's handcuffs that she'd stolen from Sherlock's bedside cabinet, she turned her attention to Moran who was still lying prone on the floor. She crouched beside him and watched as he looked at her with pools of loathing. She reached out with the tip of the knife and traced his jaw with it.**

"**You've scarred me for life" she whispered and continued to look at him as his rattling breath became almost non-existent, "I won't ever be able to forget you or what you did no matter how hard I try because I'll be reminded every time I look at myself in the mirror, so I think it's only fair that you don't forget me either." **

**With that she slashed with knife on his right cheek and then again, creating a cross from which a red ribbon pooled onto the floor. **

**She looked back at the two men as she reached the door and then turned and sprinted out of the room and down the corridor. **


	25. Chapter 25

"**How can you have been so stupid John" Sherlock looked out into space in his mind palace pose.**

"**She barely got through what happened last time she was alone with them and now you've given her over willingly?"**

**Molly was in the kitchen and came out with three mugs of tea. **

"**Don't be mean to John" she admonished as she past him a mug, "It wasn't his fault and he couldn't have done anything to stop them anyway, and you underestimate Squish, she'll be ok"**

**Sherlock looked at her and took her hand in his, "What did she tell you again" he asked looking at John **

"**All she said was, Dan Brown Angel and Demons. Any ideas?" **

**Sherlock looked at him witheringly, "8 so far" John could almost taste the sarcasm in his voice and was almost relieved when the door once again.**

**The two men who had taken the girl away, walked in. They looked exceedingly nervous and were holding hands tightly. Sherlock rose quickly and crossed the space between them in a step. He stood in front of the smaller man and his eyes were black pits. **

"**Where is my daughter" he asked, the room seemed to get colder and the man took an involuntary step awkward against the force that was being exuded from Sherlock. The big man now stepped between the two men and spoke brokenly**

"**She gives us message for you" he said, his accent was more pronounced then his friend's John thought and Sherlock also took a step back.**

"**And" he said raising one eyebrow. The small man sighed and stepped forward again.**

"**She said to tell you, Stan Lee, X-Men the Last Stand and Selena Gomez, The Muppets. It means nothing to me; I hope it does to you." They turned to go and the shorter of the two exited the room swiftly, but the other paused at the door and looked back at Sherlock.**

"**I am sorry" he said, "For when she was hurt." And then he too left quickly. Sherlock looked at the door for a minute then appeared to reawaken from his reverie. He turned back to John**

"**Ok, 3 ideas" he said, somewhat ruefully, "and none of them are particularly plausible. What does she mean? Who is 'Selena Gomez'? Why is that significant?" He slammed himself down onto the sofa beside Molly who sighed and laid her head on his chest.**

"**Selena Gomez is an actress and a pop musician" she said, "She was Justin Beiber's long term girlfriend and she cameoed in the Muppet Movies with a load of other people" Sherlock's eyes closed for a second and then reopened quickly. **

**He gently moved Molly and then looked at her, his eyes alight with the excitement of the game.**

"**The setting for Angel and Demons is the Vatican, Stan Lee and this Selena Gomez woman both made cameos in films- Vatican Cameos" he said excitedly, and John quickly caught the reference**

"**That's an old army code word." He said, "It means 'everybody duck', they used it in World War 2 if a guy walked into a base with a knife or something" When he saw the look that Sherlock gave him he said, somewhat annoyed, **

"**I was in the army Sherlock; I didn't just make it up to impress you and I was actually interested in the training they gave me!" **

**Sherlock just shrugged, "Anyway, Squish and I also use the same code word in situations where um, physical force needs to be used."**

"**You mean when she's about to kick a guy in the bollocks?" John asked innocently. Sherlock turned to him furiously, but his voice when he spoke was his normal smooth, sarcastic baritone**

"**Yes John, 'when she's about to kick someone in the bollocks', couldn't have put more elegantly myself"**

"**So what you reckon she's kicked Moriarty and Moran in the balls?" John sounded incredulous at the thought of Squish going up against them.**

"**Well I think I did a bit more than that" a voice said from the door; Squish was leaning against the doorframe with a grin on her face. She walked into the room with her hands in her pockets, **

"**how could you idiots, not notice that Sasha and Sergey left the door unlocked?" **

"**Sasha and Sergey?" asked John, "First name terms?" **

"**They're a very nice couple and I really hope they get out of this shit alive" she replied, "Now get your shit together we've got to go"**

**Molly got up as did Sherlock; John took their empty mugs to the kitchen and washed them up. When he came out again the looks that came at him made him pause. John held up his hands in surrender **

"**I know it's weird but I don't like to leave a mess.**

"**The army really fucked you up didn't it?" Squish commented as she peered out into the corridor.**

"**And John if you really want a demonstration of why you shouldn't sound so surprised that I could actually beat someone up, I'm happy to oblige, but for your information Moran has got a dislocated and, most likely broken, knee and Jim's handcuffed to a radiator, so I think I'm good" **

**The party trooped out into the corridor and stood looking down in it as if hoping for a friendly sign to point the way. Squish slipped in between John and Sherlock and said,**

"**So, anyone have any idea which way to go?" They all looked at her incredulously.**

"**You mean you don't know?" asked Molly, "I thought you had the plan?"**

**Squish looked back equally incredulously, "he's meant to be the genius" she replied, waving a hand in Sherlock's general direction, "I'm just the plucky young girl who helps him out. I got us this far, now he gets us out" She gazed at John and Molly happily and looked bemused as they exchanged worried expressions, "don't worry he has an excellent sense of direction, like a pigeon" **

**Sherlock, who was by now half way out of sight turned and said, "A pigeon? That's the best you could come up with?"**

**The three of them ran to catch him up, Squish replied**

"**Well you're long legged, considered an annoyance to society and always find your way home. You basically are a giant pigeon." **

**Sherlock didn't say anything but his forehead furrowed in annoyance and he then continued down the corridor swiftly. Squish winked cheekily at John as they followed behind him. **

**John, Molly and Squish all jogged to keep up with Sherlock, as he strode off confidently through the maze of corridors and white doors. Eventually they arrived at another white door which Sherlock opened confidently and revealed a flight of stairs, which he immediately went up. The other three followed him more cautiously and emerged incredulously onto a bustling London street. **

**It was strange to see taxis driving and almost running over people the way only London taxi drivers could. Bitchy women in fur coats and designer handbags strutted down the street like overdressed peacocks, European nannies pushed prams with squalling babies; life continued around them. **

"**Do you have a phone?" Molly asked John, then at the other two, when he shook his head. Sherlock scoffed**

"**Dull" Squish grabbed his arm as Sherlock walked towards the milling crowd.**

"**What are you going to do Sherlock?" she asked warily, "I don't want a repeat Lestrade's lecture on why I should check your pockets for illegal firearms before we leave the house" Sherlock raised an eyebrow**

"**I'm going to ask that nice Russian nanny over there if I can borrow her phone, as you can see she's just broken up with her girlfriend and as the phone isn't in use right now because she only uses it to text her now ex-girlfriend, I'm sure she would be kind enough to let me call Lestrade. On his personal number" **

"**Oh. Right" she let go of his arm, "please, carry on" **

**He sauntered over to the woman who was distractedly pushing a pram containing a screaming baby while gazing longingly at a 10 year old Nokia that was decorated with sparkly nail varnish and stickers, he talked to her for about two minutes and the came back to them triumphantly brandishing the phone like a trophy. He dialled a number; with the same flourish that pianist has after finishing a particularly hard concerto then began talking quickly into the mouthpiece. **

"**Lestrade? Yes it's Sherlock. Where are we? We're by Postman's Park, yes we do need picking up. The two 'bad guys' are either incapacitated or gone. I'd guess that at least one of them has disappeared but I wouldn't like to say for sure. Yes, we'll stay put. Goodbye" He hung up and looked rather pleased with himself, "It's all going rather well, isn't it?" The sound of sirens could be heard approaching them and Squish breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.**

**It wasn't over. It turned out that Lestrade had been about to turn the investigation into a murder enquiry, a fact that Sherlock found incredibly funny and said 'proved the incompetence of the British police force', but what it meant that there was paperwork to fill in and then Mycroft needed to talk to them. **

**So now she was trying to stay awake by pouring coffee granules on her tongue. The adrenaline that had been keeping her ticking over had now completely dissipated and with nothing to distract her, she was able to concentrate fully on the pain in her back. They had been taken to a conference room with a long wooden table in the middle of it. Stacks of paper were piled up on the one side and Lestrade was working his way through it. **

**Slowly. **

**Sherlock and Molly had gone (at Molly's request and Squish suspected that they were deliberately dawdling) in search of coffee, leaving her and John to wait in a silence. John saw her flinch a little as she leant against the chair and leant across the table**

"**We'll go straight to the hospital as soon as we're done, and get you some pain killers" he promised. She groaned and threw her head over the back of the chair, so that her hair fell away from her skull. **

"**John, neither Moriarty nor Moran were there by the time Lestrade got to them, there was one CCTV camera that managed to catch me and Sherlock getting into a car and none that even saw you or Molly. Donavon and Anderson think we're making it up to protect Sherlock, basically making it our word against theirs. So I don't think we're finishing here anytime soon." **

**John sighed, "Just try and stay awake" Her eyes were closed and he wasn't even completely sure that she had heard him but he persevered. "Please?"**

**She opened one eye. If anyone in the history of the world could project pure, undiluted sarcasm into the opening of an eye, John thought, it was the daughter of Sherlock Homes. He heard her give a small whimper as she sat up again. **

"**Ok but I swear if Anderson starts talking about how I should have a social worker again, I'm tweeting about him and Sally and then I'm putting it up on the blog along with those photos that Sherlock took and then I'm calling the Sun with the photos. Anderson may not be Prince Harry but a sordid affair in the upper ranks of Scotland Yard will sell" **

**John frowned, "I thought I got Sherlock to burn those photos?" Squish did at least have the decency to be embarrassed.**

"**After the effort I went to get the damn things? That tree outside Donavon's flat was high you know. And that spy camera was difficult to install. And Sherlock didn't distract them for long enough and they both came back. Together." She shuddered dramatically. "I saw things John. Things even I don't want to believe"**

**At that moment Sherlock and Molly came back in. Molly was clutching a tray of polystyrene cups and passed two down the table. **

"**Here" she said smiling at the pair of them, "Hopefully this'll keep you awake for a little bit longer" They took the cups and sipped them gratefully, both grimaced at the taste. Squish stuck her tongue out.**

"**Hot!" she said as she tried to look down at it. Sherlock turned to Lestrade.**

"**Really Inspector, how long are you going to keep us here?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, "We have all been questioned and there really isn't any reason to keep us here other than your ego" **

"**My ego?" blustered Lestrade, "Really Sherlock?" As the two men began to trade barbs, Squish groaned again, this time in frustration. **

"**It's gonna be a long night" she sighed, laying her head on the table. By the time her coffee had cooled down, she was half asleep. By the time Mycroft arrived at New Scotland Yard, both her and John were asleep. By the time Lestrade had finished his paperwork, all of them even Sherlock was asleep. **

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Hello, it seems I always finish on people falling asleep but anyway. I only have a few chapters of this thing left and thought I would let you know. I have a few ideas about a possible sequel but I'm not sure yet. If you do want this story to continue leave a comment or PM me. Thank yoooooou xx


	26. Chapter 26

**Slowly Squish opened her eyes, she was half expecting to see Moran's leering face and when he wasn't there, she waited calmly for her heart to slow down then looked around the room where she had woken up. To her very great surprise it was her own bedroom in her own pyjamas.**

**Or rather it looked like her own room, she wouldn't put it past Moriarty to have somehow managed to get her back into the fake flat or as she liked to call it Room 237. Well there was one way to be sure.**

**She rolled out of bed and after pulling on one of John's liberated jumpers, reached around the back of the wardrobe. Her fingers searched around carefully for a few seconds before finding a well-known indent in the wood. She pushed it gently and then pulled out the box that was hidden in the small compartment that flipped open. After carefully restoring the compartment, she took the box and sat cross legged in her bed with box sitting in the bowl created by her knees. She gently flipped the lid open and took out the contents reverently.**

**There were only about 4 things in the box, and Squish laid them out in front of her, the way a mother lays out clothes for her baby or an old woman lays out family heirlooms. The girl carefully checked each item for any sign of tampering and after being completely reassured that all the things were her own, resorted to simply looking at them. **

**The first was a few sheets of paper held together by a paper clip. She removed the paper clip and flicked through the paper. The document was her adoption papers that Sherlock had given her when she was 7. She traced the signature at the bottom of the paper. William Sherlock Scott Holmes, she gave a small giggle when she read that, he had now legally changed his name but it still gave her small pleasure to know that she, along with a few others knew Sherlock Holmes' real name. She put the papers back together and returned them to the box. **

**She also put back her Open University diploma that was technically invalid due to having the wrong date of birth on it but that she still considered a great achievement and handwritten note. She held the note in the palm of her hand for a few minutes before looking at it more closely. It was just a pink post-it note; the sticky side long since lost its tackiness. The words **_sorry baby _**was the only thing on it. **

**When she had been abandoned on the steps of Barts this had been stuck to her blanket. It had been the only point of contact that she had ever had with her mother and as a result Sherlock had kept it for her. A few years ago he had given it to her and told her that he had forced Lestrade to run the finger prints on the note through the Yard's data base but nothing had come up. She breathed in deeply; she had probably imagined it but sometimes Squish was sure that there was a small trace of perfume that still emitted from the note. **

**She closed the box and looked at the photo that was still lying next to her. This she also picked up and looked at. She remembered a conversation she had had with John a few months ago when he had commented on the lack of photographs in the flat. **

**"What do you mean" she had asked**

"**Well" he had replied, "not in the living room or in Sherlock's room are there any photos of you guys, or your grandma or Mycroft. And I was just wondering if there was a reason?" She had shrugged, acting unbothered.**

**"It's Sherlock, who knows what goes through his head" she had told him. Well lied to him. Because she knew that Sherlock had two photos in his bedroom. One was of him and Mycroft when they were children, and the other was of her when she was about a week old. **

**She looked down at the square piece of paper in her hand. In the photo a slightly younger looking Sherlock held a much younger looking Squish in his arms. For once he was smiling whole heartedly at the camera, his dark hair was all over the place and his eyes were dark with exhaustion but he looked very happy and very pleased with himself. =-=Squish herself was fast asleep in her blanket and her face was turned towards Sherlock as though she had realised that he was the only person she trusted implicitly and was seeking his protection from the big bad world. It was the only photo she possessed of the two of them together and the only one she had of her as a baby. Mrs Hudson and her grandmother had taken others when she was a little older but Sherlock had always pulled his disappearing act when a camera was pulled out. **

**Squish hesitated for a moment before pinning the photo next to her Glee poster on the notice board above her bed. She heard voices coming from the living room and hurried out to see what was going on. **

**John was of course making a cup of tea when she emerged and passed her the mug before making himself another one. Sherlock was sitting with Molly on the sofa while Mycroft was perched in the edge of Sherlock's desk. He stood up when he saw her and smiled happily.**

**"Squish, I am so happy to see you safely returned I do apologise for your terrible ordeal. Please sit down; I believe there are things we should talk about?"**

**She seated herself in Sherlock's other side and tucked her feet under her. Squish's eyes met her uncle's and she smiled coldly.**

**"Hello uncle" her voice was as brittle as stalagmites that tremble as you walk underneath them, "I was just wondering if you would care to tell me where you were while I was tortured again, Sherlock was force fed drugs and Molly and John were kidnapped, all in the name of protecting you and your government?" **

**Mycroft's reply was equally cold "My government is also yours" he reminded her, "and I don't know whether I should answer that question- technically it's all very hush-hush" **

**John saw that Squish's fists were clenched and her knuckles white as she leant across the table, " you tell me why or I swear to you Mycroft, I will post on every single social media site, paper every shop window and anonymously send every major TV network, all the passwords of the Diogenes club and all the dealings that it's members are involved in." Mycroft's face changed for a second and his cold eyes held her gaze and stared at her hard**

**"Those passwords are held on a computer that is unhackable; I don't believe that you have anything over me. But I'll tell you what you want to know anyway because your my niece and I am truly sorry for what happened" he leant back and massaged his temple. Another time John might have felt sorry for him but then he saw the scars that winked at him from the bottom of Squish's jumper and decided that he too wanted to know the answer.**

**Mycroft sighed and looked at the group," I was unable to arrange for any help for you both because I did not know where you were and because to do so would have alerted those who were holding you to my involvement which would have prevented me putting measures in place to stop the leaking of valuable government information. I'm sure you can understand my position, and while it came at great personal pain to me, if the information had been leaked, the effects would have been catastrophic for the country **

**Squish sighed and unclenched her fists. Then she smiled**

**"Ok I just wanted to know why"**

**Mycroft looked both bemused and puzzled at his niece's beatific expression as she continued**

**"now uncle I know that you trust the people in this room enormously with exception of Molly who you don't know very well, but you have my word that she won't say anything, so you have peace of mind knowing that what I am about to say won't leave this room." **

**Mycroft's expression was now one of utter bewilderment that changed to rage mixed with respect after Squish's next few words.**

**"The computer is very nearly unhackable, and I know you don't believe me, so to convince you that I am in fact telling you the truth, Odyssey"**

**The silence in the room was broken only by Sherlock's laughter. John and Molly looked at him in amazement as he threw his head back and laughed with amazement.**

**"Well Mycroft" he said when he had calmed down a bit," it looks like you've been bested by a fifteen year old girl. Isn't it lucky that she's on our side rather than Moriarty's? Now surely you should go and let the club know that their computer system is compromised?" Mycroft nodded and gathered his umbrella and briefcase together. **

"**Always a pleasure Doctor Watson" he said shaking John's hand, "Doctor Hooper, I'm sure we will see each other soon" he looked down at his niece who didn't get up but who stared back at him impassively, "well played little niece, well played" nodding to Sherlock who had also not risen, he left the flat shutting the door gently behind him. **

**John slumped into his armchair and looked at his two best friends.**

**"Would you please tell me what just happened?" he asked, **

**"And me" Molly piped up, "I'm a little confused, right John?" Squish smiled and leant back luxuriously against the cushions.**

"**I was bored" she said simply," so I hacked the Diogenes computer system, got the names and passwords of each member and then spent an afternoon looking at their computers and where needed searching their rooms" **

**John looked shocked, "you broke into what may be the most exclusive, the hardest possible place you could have picked to trespass into in London aside from Buckingham Palace and you did it an afternoon because you were bored?" **

**She looked at him slightly imperiously, **

**"The wall was taken" she said**

**"Hold on a second" John said his face still looking very confused, "Mycroft said that the system was unhackable, and don't take this the wrong way but; you're a fifteen year old girl, how did you manage it?" **

**Now Squish looked exasperated, "I said it was nearly unhackable John, learn to listen." **

**John still looked utterly confused, and then his expression turned to shock as the door creaked open. The whole room fell silent then breathed a sigh of relief as Mrs Hudson popped her head round the door and said**

**"Sherlock dear, there's a young man downstairs asking for Squish, shall I send him up?" **

**Squish jumped up and legged it into her bedroom, "Tell him I'll be five minutes Sherlock" she shouted over her shoulder," and give him some tea John" **

**Five minutes later Alex was sitting on the sofa with a steaming mug of tea, looking faintly disconcerted as Sherlock and Molly stared at each other than at him, then back at each other again. John cleared his throat noisily then sighed as he realised that he was going to have to say something. **

"**So Alex" he said awkwardly, "how are you?" **

**"How very British of you John" Sherlock remarked dryly," you'll be asking about the weather next. A much more interesting question would be, 'Alex tell me about the fight you had with your brother when he called my daughter a 'lesbo'?" **

"**Sherlock how can you possibly know that?" John said exasperatedly, "you guessed that surely" **

**"Actually Dr Watson" Alex coughed," he's right" the boy turned to Sherlock, "I would be interested to know how you knew though sir? Squish has told me about your deductions but never demonstrated before now and I'm extremely curious"**

**Sherlock looked flattered by the boy's attention, **

**"Well it's quite easy really, I know that you have two older brothers, one of which is gay and the other of which is not. The bruise on your right knuckle tells me that you punched someone recently and the lack of scratches leads me to assume it wasn't a girl, therefore most likely one of your brothers. I know that you attended your brother's eighteenth birthday party but your other brother didn't, which most likely means because he doesn't like his brother's sexuality. Finally as Squish has not been able to answer your text messages for the last few days and you have no doubt grown quite worried, both about her wellbeing and your relationship, it would appear likely that your brother teased you about her which led to your fight. Due to my deductions about his character and Squish's place of work, the comment was most likely about Squish's sexuality, and teen slang today makes lesbo the most likely comment" **

**"That's brilliant, awesome" Alex joined John in his tirade of adjectives,**

**"Amazing, fantastic..."**

**"Oh not you too" Squish's voice came from her open door where she leaned heavily against the doorframe.**

**"His ego is big enough as it is without my boyfriend inflating even more" **

**Her mock angry tone was ruined by the smile that spilt her face in two. Alex stood up and walked quickly over to her before picking her up and kissing her, ignoring the adults in the room. When they broke apart, Squish was blushing to the roots of her hair **

**"Hey" she said then turned to Sherlock, "we'll be in here if you need us" her door slammed behind them. **

**Inside her room, Alex's face dimmed a little**

**"Where have you been?" he asked, "I've looked everywhere for you. None of your friends knew where you were neither I'd work, if it went on for much longer I was going to go to the police."**

**Squish's smile slipped, "You mean you weren't told?" she asked incredulously, "Lestrade didn't tell you?"**

**"Whose Lestrade" his voice sounded tired and exasperated, " No-one's told me anything Squish, you've been missing for half a week and I've been out of my mind worrying about you and now here you are, absolutely fine and I don't know what to think" **

**"Alex, please sit down" she said firmly as she sat down on her bed and patted a space beside her," there some stuff I need to tell you" **


	27. Chapter 27

**An hour later Squish finished speaking. The retelling of the story had been punctuated by questions and incredulity and now she waited anxiously for him to say something. Squish looked at her boyfriend's face for any signs of a reaction. His face was troubled and when he spoke his voice was low and dark.**

"**Show me", she didn't ask what he wanted. She didn't have to. **

**Squish nodded and resigned herself to his pity. She lifted up her t-shirt and turned so her back faced him. The contrast between the mulled pink of almost healed scars and the dark red of new ones winked at Alex seductively.**

**He traced a thin scarlet line up her spine with a finger; he heard her breath catch a little then release. Then he noticed the initials that were adorned each of her shoulders.**

"**Are they… Did they?" he asked. Squish could hear the crack in his voice and she slowly realised that it came from anger as well as shock. She turned to face him and looked him fully in the eye. **

"**Yes." Squish said simply, "They did, but is doesn't matter right now. What does matter to me is that we're ok?" **

**Her eyes were big and if Sherlock had been there no doubt he would have commented on the fact that her pulse was elevated and her pupils were dilated, but Alex wasn't her father and he reassured her much more easily than Sherlock would have been able to. His arms wound around her torso and he gently pulled her to his chest where he planted a kiss on her forehead. Squish wrapped her arms around him and pressed herself as close as she could to get to his body. Alex rested his chin on the top of her head and sighed.**

"**What am I going to do with you?" he asked exasperatedly, "Why is my clever girlfriend asking such stupid questions?" She smiled, relieved and replied**

"**Maybe she thought that as a normal guy, you wouldn't want to have a girlfriend who is turning getting kidnapped by her dad's arch enemy, into a habit"**

"**Well" he said with a grin as he leant down to kiss her, "Isn't a good thing I'm not normal" **

**Next door Sherlock and Molly were also talking. Molly was curled up against Sherlock, with her head on his chest; Sherlock had his arm lazily curved around her back. His long violinist fingers were drawing circles and spirals on her back. She gazed up at him and let out a deep sigh of contentment.**

"**I never thought that this would happen" she said happily, Sherlock stopped the movement of his fingertips and looked down at her quizzically. **

"**I never thought I would actually be here" she explained, "In your bedroom. With you" She laughed nervously as the words left her mouth she covered her face with her hands, "Oh god I sound like such a nutter now"**

"**No." Sherlock said, moving her hands away from her face and holding them gently. His blue green held hers and she smiled. He ran one finger down one cheek and kissed her gently.**

"**Your mine" he said, "all mine"**

**His voice vibrated through his fingertips and Molly felt it run through her cheek and her heart skipped a few beats. She laid her hand on top of his and held it to her cheek. **

**Molly grinned happily, then her expression changed and a look of worry flashed on her face.**

"**What is it?" Sherlock asked as he stretched out languidly on the bed, his right arm loosely curled about Molly.**

"**What are you going to do about Jim?" Molly's voice was quiet.**

"**I don't know" Sherlock's voice was quiet and Molly felt it as his mind shifted away from her. She sighed and closed her eyes. He might be a while.**

**And elsewhere in 221B John Watson proposed to Mary Morstan, Mrs Hudson made tea happily because her boys were back. A little later John would open a bottle of champagne, as Sherlock would pretend to sulk at the changes that were being made in his life, while secretly being happy for his best friend. For a while at least everything would be happy and warm and safe, in the small flat where the broken had come to make their home. While outside the monsters stood in the cold and waited.**

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_**And that's the end folks. Well I say the end; I have got an idea for a sequel so look out for that but it may be a while. Thank you to everyone who commented followed or just read it, you are all amazing. Especial thanks go to the person who made me make up this account and helped me with the story line. If the person who called this story funny reads this message, I will find you and I will kill you. Lots of love guys **___


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